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A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF 

AMERICAN HISTORY 



BY 



LEON C. PRINCE 

II 
OF THE PENNSYLVANIA BAR AND THE FACULTY OF 
DICKINSON COLLEGE 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1907 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

MAh Ul 1907 

u. Gcipyris:M Entry 
CLASS A XXC, No. 

copy Q. 



Copyright, 1907, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

Published, March, 1907 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Discovery i 

II. The Indians 14 

III. The Southern Colonies 21 

IV. The New England Colonies ... 29 
V. The Middle Colonies 36 

VI. The French and Indian War ... 46 

VII. The Colonies in the Eighteenth 

Century 59 

VIII. Causes of the Revolution .... 75 

IX. The Revolutionary War 88 

X. Formation of the Federal Govern- 
ment 118 

XI. Early Achievement and National 

Expansion 138 

XII. The War of 181 2 149 

XIII. The Growth of Nationality and the 
Further Development of Polit- 
ical Parties 161 

V 



vl CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV. Andrew Jackson and the Reign of 

THE People 174 

XV. Invention, Literature, Moral Prog- 
ress AND Social Conditions . .187 

XVI. The Slavery Question in Politics . 197 

XVII. Secession 215 

XVIII. The Civil War 226 

XIX. Reconstruction 259 

XX. From the Impeachment of Johnson 
TO the Political Revolution 

OF 1884 275 

XXI. The Opening of a New Era . . .295 

XXII. The Silver Question in Politics . 309 

XXIII. War and Expansion 331 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN 
HISTORY 

CHAPTER I 
DISCOVERY 

A GLANCE over the United States to- 
day reveals a strong and prosperous 
nation of vast extent, with a citizenship 
made up of many races and a government quite 
unhke the governments of the nations from 
which they came. 

A little over four hundred years ago the peo- 
ple of Europe had never heard of America. 
How did they become aware of Its existence? 
What sort of a place was America before that 
time? What has become of the native red men 
who once hunted and made war on the very 
spots where dwellings, shops, and colleges now 
stand? How did the United States become a 
nation; and why is there only one instead of 
several nations within Its extensive area ? When 
our forefathers founded this government why 
did they make It so unlike all others, and what is 



2 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the secret of its phenomenal success? Why do 
foreigners who come here to Hve learn so soon 
to love the country of their adoption better than 
the land of their birth, and why do their chil- 
dren grow up to be Americans rather than trans- 
planted Germans or Italians? Why do Euro- 
peans come here at all? Very few Americans 
go abroad to live. Is America better than Eu- 
rope? If It Is, what makes It so? 

To answer these and many other questions 
suggested by the obvious facts of the day we 
must first go back many years Into the past, for 
the discovery of America Is in large part the re- 
sult of Ideas and events which stirred the minds 
of the people of Europe centuries ago. 

The Attempt to Find a Short Sea-passage to 
India. — In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
the Christian nations were engaged in trying to 
get possession of the Holy Land, which was 
held then as it is to-day by Mohammedans. 
The Crusades failed to accomplish their pur- 
pose, but they were followed by great results of 
an unexpected sort. The Mohammedans were 
far in advance of the Western Christians in 
their civilization, and the European soldiers 
learned from their foes the use of many scien- 
tific Implements and articles of food and cloth- 



DISCOVERY 3 

ing, which on their return from the wars they 
introduced into their home communities. After 
the Crusades ceased a flourishing trade sprang 
up between Europe and Asia, the metals and 
woods of the former being exchanged for the 
pearls, ivory, perfumes, and delicate fabrics of 
the latter. 

In 1299 Marco Polo, an Italian traveller who 
had spent many years in Cathay at the court of 
the Great Khan, the ruler of that region, pub- 
lished a book containing an account of the dis- 
tant countries he had visited. This book was 
read by almost everybody of intelligence, and 
greatly quickened the Interest which the Cru- 
sades had already awakened in the commercial 
opportunities of the East.* 

Gradually the trade with the Orient was 
monopolized by the Italian commercial cities, 
Genoa and Venice. There were two ways of 
reaching the Asiatic markets ; one was controlled 
by Genoa, the other by Venice. The Genoese 
sent their goods to Constantinople, through the 
Black Sea, and thence overland by trains of 
mules and camels to the ports on the Persian 

* The term "East" included besides Palestine, Cathay 
(the early European name for China), India, which was in- 
definite, and Cipango, the country which we know to-day as 
Japan. 



4 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Gulf; while the merchants of Venice traded by 
way of Alexandria and the Red Sea. Both 
routes were slow, expensive, and perilous. 

In 1453 the Turks, a fierce, barbarous peo- 
ple who had already overrun a large part of 
Asia Minor, captured Constantinople. The 
effect of this calamity was to block the former 
routes of travel and ruin the trade of the Ital- 
ian cities. It then became necessary to find a 
new way to the East. The Portuguese believed 
that a new route might be found by sailing south- 
ward along the coast of Africa. In 1497 the 
Portuguese Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape 
of Good Hope and reached India. As Genoa 
and Venice declined In commercial importance 
they were superseded by Portugal and Spain, 
and the Atlantic took the place of the Mediter- 
ranean as the highway of commerce. 

Columbus. — Among those who studied this 
problem of a short sea-passage was a young 
sailor named Christopher Columbus. He was 
probably born In Genoa about the year 1446, 
but after 1470 lived in Lisbon, supporting him- 
self by making maps and charts for navigators. 

Columbus believed that the Eastern countries 
could be reached by sailing west. He was one 
of the few men of his day who knew that the 



DISCOVERY 5 

earth was spherical. Learned men among the 
ancient Greeks had known it, and the Arabians 
were also aware of the true form of the earth. 
But the Europeans of Columbus's day were ex- 
tremely ignorant, and believed that the earth 
was flat and circular like a plate. The only 
parts of the world with which they were at all 
acquainted were Europe, the British Isles, Ice- 
land, a small portion of Asia, and the northern 
coast of Africa. The Atlantic Ocean was called 
the " Sea of Darkness," and was thought to 
abound with monsters of strange and hideous 
shape capable of devouring an entire ship and 
crew at a single swallow. 

For seventeen years Columbus tried to inter- 
est the people of Europe in his theory, but they 
only laughed at him, called him crazy, and told 
him that if he sailed very far into the Sea of 
Darkness he would fall over the edge of the 
earth. In vain he tried to convince the kings of 
Portugal and Spain and the wealthy nobles. 
They would have nothing to do with a man who 
was foolish enough to believe he could reach the 
East by sailing in the opposite direction. 

Finally Columbus determined to ask aid of 
the king of France. He was slowly making his 
way on foot to the French court when he stopped 



6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

at the close of a summer day at a convent in 
Andalusia for rest and refreshment. The prior 
of the convent was an intelligent and kind- 
hearted man. He became interested in Colum- 
bus, advised him not to go to France, but to try 
once more the Spanish court, and gave him a 
letter to an influential priest, who introduced him 
to Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of 
Spain. The queen was soon persuaded. She 
was a pious Catholic, and saw in Columbus's 
scheme an opportunity for missionary work 
among heathen people. The king was slower 
to respond. He was also a Catholic, though 
not so pious as his wife, and the missionary idea 
did not appeal to him with striking force. But 
he was ambitious to extend his empire and to 
find new mines of gold and silver. He knew 
that whatever discoveries Columbus might make 
would belong to Spain if Columbus sailed under 
the Spanish flag. Thus Ferdinand and Isabella, 
working from quite different motives, gave Co- 
lumbus men and ships, the queen even pawning 
some of her jewels to provide necessary funds. 

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from 
the port of Palos, within sight of the convent 
where he had received his first encouragement. 
His fleet consisted of three small vessels, the 



DISCOVERY 7 

Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta, The largest was 
not more than sixty feet long by twenty in width. 
For days and weeks Columbus and his men 
sailed on into the Sea of Darkness. The world 
proved very much larger than Columbus had sup- 
posed. The sailors became terror-stricken and 
begged their leader to turn back. At last, on the 
night of October nth, they saw a light made 
by the fires kindled by natives on the land. The 
next morning the intrepid admiral and his crew 
stepped ashore, and Columbus, planting the 
cross and the flag of Spain in the soil, took 
possession of the New World. The land on 
which he had disembarked was one of the islands 
of the Bahama group. Before returning to 
Spain he touched at Cuba and Hayti. 

Upon his arrival in Spain Columbus was re- 
ceived with every mark of honor by sovereigns 
and people. He made three more voyages, dis- 
covering Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the islands of 
the Caribbean Sea, and the mainland of South 
America, and exploring the coast of Honduras 
and the Isthmus of Panama. Columbus was 
convinced that he had found the short sea-pas- 
sage to India by way of the West. For this rea- 
son he called the islands which he had discov- 
ered the West Indies, a name which they have 



8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

always retained. But as the fabled riches of the 
East did not appear, people grew Impatient and 
enthusiasm turned to disappointment. For a 
time Columbus was Imprisoned on a false 
charge, and finally died in poverty and neglect 
on May 20, 1506, not knowing the extent and 
significance of his achievement. 

Why the New World was Called America. — 
At the time of Columbus's discovery Spain and 
Portugal were the two great maritime nations 
of Europe. Foreseeing the disputes likely to 
arise concerning the possession of new territory, 
these nations agreed to divide In advance all the 
unknown regions of the earth. The Pope, who 
by virtue of his exalted spiritual office frequently 
acted as arbiter for Christendom, drew a me- 
ridian three hundred and seventy leagues west of 
the Cape Verde Islands, known as the Line of 
Demarcation. All lands which should be dis- 
covered east of that boundary were to belong to 
Portugal, and all west of It to Spain. 

About the year 1501 Portugal sent out a fleet 
under the command of Americus Vespuclus. 
He sighted the coast of Brazil, and, finding It 
east of the Line, claimed it for Portugal. A few 
years later a German professor published a 
book on geography In which he proposed that 



DISCOVERY 9 

Brazil be called America in honor of Vespucius. 
As Columbus was supposed to have discovered 
merely a new route to India, not a new conti- 
nent, the idea met with favor, and in course of 
time the name was applied not only to Brazil, but 
to all North and South America. Brazil was the 
only part of the New World acquired by Portu- 
gal, because it was the only part that lay east of 
the Line of Demarcation. 

John Cabot and the English Claim. — For nearly 
a century after the voyages of Columbus, Spain 
had most of the field to herself. The rest of 
Europe was too busy with other affairs to quar- 
rel with Spain over a new country. In 1497 
England sent out John Cabot " to discover any 
heathen regions which up to this time have re- 
mained unknown to Christians." He was the 
first European to set foot on the continent of 
North America, landing in Labrador. England 
did not at that time possess sufficient naval 
strength to enforce her rights of discovery, and 
made no immediate attempt to take possession, 
but many years later the English claimed the 
entire North American continent on the basis 
of Cabot's discovery. 

Spanish Explorations and Conquests. — Spanish 
settlements were made in the West Indies, and 



10 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

many adventurers went far into the mainland 
searching for El Dorado, the gilded land, where 
according to current belief mines of gold and 
silver waited to lavish their bursting treasures. 

On Easter Day, 15 13, Ponce de Leon, a Span- 
ish nobleman who was looking for the " foun- 
tain of youth," landed on the coast of Florida. 
Intelligent men of that period had faith in many 
follies of imagination, which even the children 
of this day know better than to credit. De 
Leon had heard and believed that somewhere 
in America there was a magic fountain whose 
waters would restore youth to aged men. He 
called the country Florida, after the Spanish 
synonym for Easter — Pascua Floriddy " flowery 
passover." 

In the same year Balboa, another Spaniard, 
crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered 
the Pacific Ocean. 

In 15 19 Cortez with a small army invaded 
Mexico and conquered that country for Spain. 
By 1592 the Spaniards had explored the Pacific 
coast from Lower California to Oregon. 

In 1 541 Ferdinando De Soto, the Spanish 
governor of Cuba, while on an expedition 
through the south-west, discovered the Missis- 
sippi River. 



DISCOVERY II 

St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United 
States, was founded by the Spaniards in 1565, 
to prevent the French from making settlements 
in Florida. 

Why North America did not Remain Spanish. — 
Despite a full century's undisputed right of way 
on this continent, there Is not to-day in the law, 
religion, government, or other social institutions 
of the American people a single elemental fact 
that can be traced to the authorship or moulding 
influence of Spain. A few physical landmarks, 
such as stone houses, walls, and cathedral ruins, 
scattered through Florida and the south-west, 
are the melancholy vestiges of an empire long 
since dissolved In the testing crucible of time. 
For It was written on the scroll of destiny by 
Immutable decree that o'er Columbia's virgin 
soil the " pale emblem of Castilian pride " 
should never wave In token of possession, nor 
Spanish sovereignty find enduring foothold 
within her spacious borders. 

The trouble was, the Spaniard never came 
here for a wise purpose. Instead of bring- 
ing his family and settling down to clear the 
wilderness, till the soil, and grow up with the 
country, he was hunting for a sudden fortune 
which would enable him to return to Spain and 



12 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

spend the remainder of his days in idleness 
and ease. The followers of Cortez, Balboa, 
and De Soto were adventurers who were look- 
ing for gold and silver. 

It was not until people came here with the In- 
tention of remaining permanently, people who 
appreciated the value of agriculture, industry, 
and commerce, that the foundations of the 
United States were laid. This happened when 
the English, Dutch, Scotch, and Germans be- 
gan their settlements on the Atlantic seaboard. 
Their conception of wealth was broader and 
their ideal of its uses nobler than the Spaniard's 
sordid purpose. They realized that true wealth 
consists not in abundance of gold and silver coin- 
age, but in houses and lands, in farms, shops, 
ships, and factories, crowned by a moral exalta- 
tion that finds its certain measure in the school- 
house and the home. 

It is the nation which produces the com- 
modities which other nations want, and for 
which they are willing to exchange their money 
that Is truly rich. Neither Spain nor the rest 
of Europe derived permanent material benefit 
from the finding of a new world. In many re- 
spects they were worse off than before, for the 
discovery of America excited the spirit of greed, 



DISCOVERY 13 

created jealousies and hatreds between nations, 
and led to devastating wars. The true gainer 
was America Itself. In the course of time It re- 
ceived some of the best men and women from 
the best countries of Europe. They came to 
make their homes, to build schools, to become 
farmers, merchants, Inventors, and finally to In- 
fluence the entire human race toward loftier 
manhood and a wider outlook by means of the 
freest government and the largest opportunities 
the world has ever known. 

Note. — It is quite probable that the Northmen, a roving, 
piratical people from the north of Europe, visited America 
about the year 1000 a.d. We know that they were ac- 
quainted with Greenland. There is evidence that in that 
year Leif Erikson — "Leif the Lucky" — led an expedition 
to the mainland. A temporary settlement called Vinland 
was made by the Northmen somewhere on the New England 
coast, but its exact situation is not known. The visits of the 
Northmen were without important results. No one else 
learned from them of the existence of this continent, and they 
themselves seem to have forgotten it. 



CHAPTER II 

THE INDIANS 

THE continents of North and South 
America had been inhabited for many 
ages before the arrival of Europeans. 
The origin of this early race Is unknown, but 
there are certain similarities In appearance, lan- 
guage, and tradition which suggest that the 
American aborigines are kindred to the people 
of Asia. 

That the inhabitants of the New World were 
known as Indians was due to a mistake of 
Columbus who, thinking that he had reached 
India, called the natives Indians. The name 
has clung to them ever since In spite of the fact 
that men soon learned that America was not 
a part of Asia. 

Appearance, Character, and Government. — The 
Indians had strong, lithe bodies, reddish or 
copper-colored skins, high cheek-bones, and 
straight, coarse, black hair. They had no beards. 
Hair does not grow on the face of the American 

14 



THE INDIANS 15 

aborigine. They were swift of foot and keen 
of vision, and could track an enemy through 
the deepest forest by the print of his foot on 
the grass or the twigs bent by the weight of 
his passing body. They were fond of war 
and were revengeful, never forgiving an In- 
jury but likewise never forgetting an act of 
kindness. 

All Indians who could trace descent from a 
common female ancestor belonged to one clan. 
Each clan had Its own magistrates and war- 
chiefs. A group of clans formed a tribe, the 
members of which spoke the same language. 
The tribe was loosely governed by a council 
composed of the chiefs of the clans. Its de- 
cisions bound nobody, though public opinion 
usually supported them. 

Mode of Life. — The Indians were wild in 
their nature and uncivilized in their habits. 
Though distributed over the entire continent, 
they were few in numbers compared with the 
present white population. There were only 
about two hundred thousand in all the country 
east of the Mississippi River. There are twice 
as many people living in Philadelphia to-day 
as there were Indians in all North America in 
1492. The Indians lived In villages, and their 



i6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

dwellings were called " wigwams " or " tepees." 
These consisted of small huts made of skin or 
bark stretched over wooden frames. They were 
of circular form at the base and either pointed 
like a cone or rounded like a dome at the top. 
Sometimes their dwellings were made of logs. 
The Iroquois Indians of New York had what 
they called " long-houses," large wooden build- 
ings, a hundred feet in length, divided into 
twenty compartments, each compartment shelter- 
ing an entire family. If the villages were 
located in places which were easy to attack they 
were surrounded with high wooden stockades as 
a protection against the enemy. 

The Indians made their living by hunting, 
fishing, and agriculture. Although uncivilized, 
they were by no means mere savages. They 
used dishes made of clay, and knew much more 
about farming than is generally supposed, rais- 
ing beans, tobacco, pumpkins, squashes, pota- 
toes, and " maize," or Indian corn. It was from 
the Indians that the white settlers learned the 
use of these vegetables, which more than once 
saved them from starvation. Colored shells, 
called " wampum," served for money. The 
dress of the Indians varied according to the sea- 
son of the year. In summer they went almost 



THE INDIANS 17 

naked, but in winter they clothed themselves in 
furs and blankets. They were fond of gay col- 
ors, of ornaments, and amusements. 

The Indian boat was called a " canoe." It 
was made of birch-bark or skins stretched over 
a framework of wood, and fastened together by 
strips of hide and the pitch of the spruce-tree. 
The red men were good athletes, and enjoyed 
running races and playing ball. Lacrosse, the 
favorite game of modern Canadians, is an Ind- 
ian sport. Hunting, fishing, and war were the 
only occupations which were considered worthy 
to engage the attention of the men. Domestic 
labor was performed by the women, who were 
called " squaws." They were not abused, but 
had their rights under the crude Indian law. 
The women of the Iroquois nation owned land 
and were permitted to vote. 

The natives of Mexico and Peru were supe- 
rior to the rest of the Indians of North and 
South America. The Peruvians especially had 
buildings and roads, possessed rich mines of 
gold, silver, copper, and lead, and made beauti- 
ful ornaments of the precious metals. They 
pastured vast flocks and herds and had an ad- 
vanced language. The Mexicans, though less 
civihzed than the Peruvians, were in advance of 



i8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the other tribes. Both Mexico and Peru were 
cruelly despoiled by the Spaniards. 

Warfare. — The Indians were never so happy 
as when on the war-path. They were brave 
after a fashion, but their method of fighting was 
hardly honorable, judged by our standards. 
They preferred to lie in ambush and to shoot 
their enemies from behind rocks and trees rather 
than to meet them face to face. Every warrior 
shaved his head except a place at the top about 
the size of a half-dollar, on which the long hair 
was allowed to remain. This single wisp of hair 
was called the " scalp-lock." When an Indian 
killed his enemy in battle or in ambush he cut 
this lock of hair from the dead man's body, to- 
gether with that part of the scalp to which it 
was attached. " Scalps " were the greatest 
trophies of war, and the Indian who had the 
largest number dangling from his belt was re- 
garded as the best warrior. 

Prisoners of war were generally tortured to 
death by all sorts of inhuman devices, such as 
sticking splinters of burning wood in the flesh 
of the victim, or shooting his eyes out, or tying 
him to a stake and burning him alive. The 
Indians were probably no more cruel than other 
races of men, though their lack of refinement 



THE INDIANS 19 

made them appear to be. It was under the 
ordeal of torture that the Indian appeared at 
his best, for he usually died without a cry or a 
murmur, it being esteemed great heroism to 
suffer physical pain in silence. 

The weapons of the Indian were the hatchet, 
the knife, the club, the lance, and the bow and 
arrow. Stone and flint were used in making 
some of these instruments until the white man 
Introduced better weapons of steel. 

Religion. — The Indians worshipped many 
gods. Trees, rocks, plants, animals, and the 
forces of nature all had their ruling spirits 
whom the simple minds of the barbarians were 
ever fearful of offending and perpetually sought 
to placate by sacrifices and gifts. The priests and 
doctors were called " medicine-men," and were 
believed to have great power with spirits. 
When an Indian died he was supposed to go to 
the " Happy Hunting-ground." In order to 
protect and feed him on his journey Into the 
unseen country, his relatives placed the weapons 
of the dead warrior on his grave, together with 
dried meat, the immaterial counterparts of 
which, according to aboriginal philosophy, fur- 
nished defence and refreshment to the travelling 
ghost. 



20 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Modern Indian. — The American Indian of 
to-day, in his barbarian state, is about what he 
was four hundred years ago. Wherever he has 
come Into touch with white men It has generally 
been with the worst sort of white men, and the 
Indian has absorbed the vices but not the virtues 
of his conqueror. 

According to the census of 1900, there were 
266,760 Indians In the United States. Nearly 
half of them live on Government reservations, 
and are fed and clothed at public expense. 
These " reservation Indians " are not progress- 
ing and do not care for education. Though the 
Indian does not seek civilization, many have 
yielded after It was forced upon them, and some 
have achieved marked success in professional and 
literary life. 

Many children are taken from the reserva- 
tions each year by the Government and placed In 
Indian Industrial schools, the most celebrated of 
which is at Carlisle, Pa. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES, 1607-1733 

WE have seen that the Spaniards were 
the first to visit and explore the 
Western world. In the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries the French began their 
work of exploration and settlement in Canada. 
The first successful French colony was planted 
in Acadia, now Nova Scotia, in 1605. The city 
of Quebec was founded three years later. 

The voyage of Cabot in 1497 resulted In 
England's claiming the entire North American 
continent on the ground that Cabot was the first 
European to reach the mainland. This claim 
had never been abandoned, although no attempt 
was made at colonization for nearly a hundred 
years. When at the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century English enterprise turned seri- 
ously to America it found the southern part held 
by Spain and the northern by France. But in 
spite of her tardiness in entering the race for 
colonial possessions England had the best of It, 



22 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

for the portion that fell to her lot was the 
choicest of all. It lay along the Atlantic sea- 
board between Florida and Nova Scotia, and 
had every advantage of climate, fertility, and 
natural wealth. The thirteen English colonies 
planted In this vast central region developed 
later Into the United States. They naturally fall 
into three groups, the Southern, Middle, and 
New England. 

Virginia (1607). — ^This name was given in 
1584 to all the English territory In America In 
honor of Elizabeth, called the " Virgin Queen " 
because she was unmarried. From 1584 to 
1587 Sir Walter Raleigh made several attempts 
to found a colony at Roanoke, within the limits 
of the present State of North Carolina. His 
efforts failed for the reason that he had no finan- 
cial backing. 

In 1606 a group of English capitalists, be- 
lieving that a successful colony could be found- 
ed, provided there was plenty of money behind 
It, organized the London Company and ob- 
tained from King James I a charter which gave 
them authority to make settlements In the south- 
ern half of what Is now the United States. The 
London Company at once sent out a hundred or 
more colonists under the command of Captain 



THE SOUTHERN COLONIES, 1607-1733 23 

John Smith, an English adventurer of extraordi- 
nary abilities. They reached Amenca in the 
spring of 1607, and settled at Jamestown, Va., 
which they named in honor of the reigning king. 
This was the first permanent English colony in 
America. 

The settlers were not well fitted for so serious 
an undertaking as the establishment of a colony. 
Most of them were " gentlemen," which in that 
day signified persons of the male sex who never 
worked. There were only about a dozen in the 
whole number who had ever done any manual 
labor. The colonists quarrelled among them- 
selves and with the Indians, and many died of 
sickness. Had it not been for the wisdom of 
Captain John Smith, and a timely reenforce- 
ment from England, they would have abandoned 
the enterprise. But with the arrival of other 
settlers, who knew more about practical affairs 
than the first, the colony took courage and soon 
grew prosperous. The London Company au- 
thorized the popular election of a House of 
Burgesses to make laws for the community. 
Virginia raised large quantities of tobacco which 
were exported to England. The habit of smok- 
ing had been Introduced Into that country by 
Sir Walter Raleigh, who had learned It from the 



24 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Indians. It became so popular that Virginia 
was kept busy supplying the Enghsh demand for 
tobacco. 

The Beginning of Slavery. — Toiling all day In 
the tobacco fields under a blazing sun was too irk- 
some for white men. In 1619 the Treasurer^ 
an English privateer, called in the slang phrase 
of the day a " Dutch man-o'-war," appeared in 
Jamestown harbor with a cargo of twenty 
negroes, which the captain offered to dispose of 
in exchange for provisions. The negroes proved 
to be just the kind of laborers needed for heavy 
out-of-door work. This was the origin of Afri- 
can slavery In the United States. For many 
years a horrible trade in human beings was car- 
ried on between the American colonies and deal- 
ers who made a business of stealing black men 
and women from Africa to supply the demand 
for negro laborers. At first slavery existed in 
nearly all the colonies, but later It became con- 
fined to the South. 

The negroes introduced by the Treasurer 
were not strictly slaves but servants. They were 
not owned by individuals, but were employed by 
the public, and were paid wages. In the course 
of a very few years, however, this form of servi- 
tude passed Into slavery. It is noteworthy that 



THE SOUTHERN COLONIES, 1607-1733 25 

colonial Virginia was the first community in the 
civilized world to legislate against the slave- 
trade. Her opposition, expressed in thirty-three 
acts of assembly passed prior to 1772, proved 
futile because the traffic was profitable to Eng- 
land, which continued it in spite of protest. 

Virginia was governed by the London Com- 
pany until 1624, when it became a royal colony 
governed by the king through officials whom he 
appointed, although to a great extent the peo- 
ple continued to manage their own affairs. They 
had a strong spirit of independence which led 
them to expel a governor because they were dis- 
satisfied with his rule. 

When the English Puritans executed Charles 
I in 1 648, many of the '' Cavaliers," as the king's 
followers were called, took refuge in Virginia. 
Their coming greatly improved the character of 
the colony, for they were men of education and 
wealth. They built magnificent houses and de- 
voted themselves to politics. But the great mass 
of people were ignorant and without influence in 
public affairs. Said Governor Berkeley in 1671 : 
" I thank God there are no free schools nor 
printing-presses In Virginia." The sons of rich 
planters were sent abroad to be educated, but the 
sons of poor men were not educated at all. In 



26 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

1693 the colonial legislature of Virginia estab- 
lished the College of William and Mary for the 
education of the scions of wealthy families. 

Maryland (1634).— As Virginia was a royal 
colony, the king could do with it as he pleased. 
Charles I was pleased to cut off a portion, which 
he gave to his friend Cecil Calvert, Lord Balti- 
more, who named it Maryland in honor of 
Queen Henrietta Maria. In those days people 
of different religions hated and persecuted each 
other with a bitterness incomprehensible in this 
age. England was a Protestant country, and 
the government passed severe proscriptive laws 
against Roman Catholics. Lord Baltimore was 
a Catholic and desired to found a colony where 
his co-religionists could worship in their own 
way. But he was liberal-minded and allowed 
Protestants also to settle in Maryland. In fact, 
he could not have done otherwise, being the sub- 
ject of a Protestant king. Until Pennsylvania 
was founded Maryland was the only place in 
the civilized world where Catholics and Prot- 
estants dwelt together in harmony. Later the 
Protestants found themselves in the majority, 
and then they legislated against the Catholics. 

In government Maryland was a proprietary 
colony; that is, the proprietor or owner was 



THE SOUTHERN COLONIES, 1607-1733 27 

given authority by the crown to rule the col- 
ony as though it were a kingdom under his own 
administration. He could make any laws he 
might desire, with the consent of the people, 
provided they were not contrary to the laws of 
England. 

The Carolinas (1663) were cut from the origi- 
nal territory of Virginia and given to favorites 
of Charles II. At first there was but one col- 
ony of that name. Including the present States 
of North and South Carolina and a large part 
of Georgia, but In 1729 the proprietors sold It 
to King George II, who divided It Into two royal 
provinces. North and South Carolina. The peo- 
ple were of mixed nationality, English, Scotch- 
Irish, French, and Dutch, very thrifty and pros- 
perous. It was a fine agricultural region with 
a mild climate and a rich soil. 

Georgia (1733) was founded by General James 
Oglethorpe, a member of the British Parlia- 
ment and a very brave and honorable man. 
Under the severe English laws of that day peo- 
ple who owed money which they could not pay 
were thrown Into jail. Not less than four 
thousand Impecunious debtors were Imprisoned 
every year in England. The jails were wretched 
places, unfit for any human being. General 



28 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Oglethorpe desired to carry the most deserving 
of these unfortunate debtors to America, where 
they might have a new start In life. In 1732 
the king gave a portion of South Carolina to 
General Oglethorpe and a few other persons 
under a charter which vested them with propri- 
etary rights, although they were not to hold the 
colony for themselves, but " In trust for the 
poor.'' It was called Georgia in honor of the 
king, George II, and the first settlement was 
made at Savannah In 1733. The early colonists 
were not all poor English debtors. Many well- 
to-do Scotch, Germans, and Italians also went 
there to live. 

Georgia remained under the government of 
the trustees until 1752, when it became a 
royal colony with a governor appointed by 
the king. It was the last of the thirteen colo- 
nies planted by England within the present lim- 
its of the United States, and the only one where 
slavery and the importation of intoxicating 
liquors were originally prohibited. A few years 
later In obedience to popular demand both pro- 
hibitions were removed. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES, 1620-91 

THERE were many people in England 
who did not approve of the Es- 
tablished Church, as the Episcopal 
Church was called. They thought it resembled 
too much the Roman Catholic Church, of which 
it had once been a part. Some wished to leave 
it and to form a new sect; these persons were 
called '' Separatists." Others desired simply to 
make certain changes in the mode of worship, 
to '' purify " it, as they said; they were known 
as " Puritans." 

As the Church and the Government sup- 
ported each other the reformers brought upon 
themselves the enmity of both. In order to 
escape persecution a party of Separatists in 
1608 fled to Holland, at that time the most 
enlightened country in Europe. But they were 
English at heart, who loved their home, even 
though they could not live there. Fearing that 
their children would grow up to speak the Dutch 

29 



30 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

language, to follow the Dutch customs, and to 
love Holland better than England they deter- 
mined to go to America and found a new state, 
where they could worship as they pleased and 
where their children could mature Into Eng- 
lishmen. 

Massachusetts (1620). — In September, 1620, 
a small vessel named the Mayflower^ having on 
board one hundred and two Separatists under 
the leadership of William Bradford, William 
Brewster, and Miles Standish, sailed for Amer- 
ica. On December 21st, after a stormy voyage 
of more than two months, they disembarked on 
the Ice-fringed coast of Massachusetts, and made 
a settlement at Plymouth. Before landing, the 
men, forty-one In number, drew up and signed 
the famous " Mayflower Compact," by which 
they bound themselves to make and obey their 
own laws. It was not a declaration of Indepen- 
dence from England, for in the same document 
they acknowledged the king as their sovereign, 
but It meant that they were determined to have 
a larger measure of self-government than they 
had ever enjoyed in England. The colony 
founded by the Separatists received the name of 
*' Plymouth Plantation." Its founders are gen- 
erally known as the " Pilgrim Fathers." The 



THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES, 1620-91 31 

first winter was marked by terrible suffering. 
Half the colony perished. At one time there 
were but six or seven persons able to be up and 
doing. But in spite of their distress not one 
thought of returning to England or to Holland. 

Not only the Separatists, but the Puritans as 
well, were persecuted by the Government and 
the Church of England. In 1628 a company of 
them settled at Salem. Two years later a large 
number of wealthy and prominent Puritans 
founded the city of Boston. Others followed, 
and by 1634 there were four thousand Puritans 
in America. Their settlements collectively re- 
ceived the name of Massachusetts Bay Colony. 
In 1 69 1 the Plymouth Colony and the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony united. As the Puritan 
community was the larger and more important 
of the two it retained its own name, and both 
were henceforth known as the single colony of 
Massachusetts Bay. 

Although the Puritans and Pilgrims came to 
America to find civil and religious liberty they 
refused to extend to others the rights which they 
demanded for themselves. Instead of allowing 
freedom to all men they passed severe laws 
against Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and 
Quakers. They established a state church, and 



32 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

no one was allowed to vote In a civil election 
who did not belong to this church. The cut and 
fashion of men's and women's garments were 
fixed by law. Non-attendance at religious ser- 
vice was punished by fine, Imprisonment, or pub- 
lic whipping. The result was that while public 
order was good and morality high, Massa- 
chusetts was the most intolerant colony in all 
America. 

Yet the Puritans were men of honor, con- 
scientious, brave, and upright. They were firm 
believers In education. The oldest and greatest 
university in America is Harvard, founded by 
the Puritans in 1636 for the training of the 
clergy before the wilderness had been cleared or 
the red man driven West. 

Rhode Island (1636). — Among those who dif- 
fered from the Puritans In point of view was a 
young minister, Roger Williams. He believed 
in tolerating other sects and in keeping state 
and church separate, for he had seen the mis- 
chief that had resulted from their union both 
In Europe and in Massachusetts. For these the- 
ories he was banished from the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony. 

Such treatment seems harsh to the modern 
mind, but it was the habit of a severe and 



THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES, 1620-91 33 

orthodox age when men took their religion 
on faith and with desperate seriousness. Had 
Roger Wilhams lived in Europe he might 
have fared worse. For a while he took refuge 
with the Indians of Narragansett Bay, where 
he founded the city of Providence in 1636. 
Williams's colony in course of time developed 
Into the State of Rhode Island. 

Connecticut (1636). — At about the same time 
that Roger Williams settled Providence several 
other citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
who thought It unjust to debar a man from vot- 
ing or holding office simply because he was not 
a member of a particular church, moved into 
Connecticut and founded the towns of Windsor, 
Wethersfield, and Hartford. In 1639 these 
three towns united and formed a miniature re- 
public under a written constitution called the 
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which 
remained in force one hundred and eighty 
years. 

Connecticut was the first republic In the his- 
tory of the world to be founded by a written con- 
stitution. The Influence of the Fundamental 
Orders is apparent in the Constitution of the 
United States to a degree unparalleled by any 
other colonial instrument. 



34 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

In 1643 New Haven and three neighbor- 
ing towns united in a similar republic and 
took the name of the New Haven Colony. 
It remained independent until 1662, when it 
was annexed to Connecticut by order of King 
Charles II. 

New Hampshire (1691) at first included what is 
now the State of New Hampshire and a part of 
Maine. This whole territory was granted by 
King James I in 1622 to two English gentlemen. 
Maine later became a part of Massachusetts. 
New Hampshire was twice united with Massa- 
chusetts, but finally became a separate royal 
province in 1691. 

King Philip's War. — The New England colo- 
nies had almost continuous trouble with the Ind- 
ians. In 1675 King Philip, the war-chief of 
the Wampanoags, united all the tribes from 
Maine to New York for the purpose of driving 
out the white men who were steadily pushing 
the Indians away from the haunts of their 
fathers. The war lasted two years, until the 
death of Philip, who was shot as he was trying 
to escape from a force which had surrounded 
his dwelling at Mount Hope, near Bristol, 
R. I. His followers were killed or sold into 
slavery, and the power of the New England 



THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES, 1620-91 35 

tribes was forever destroyed. About six hun- 
dred white men were killed in battle during 
King Philip's War, besides a vast number of 
men, women, and children who were massacred 
or died of starvation. 



CHAPTER V 

THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1664-81 

IT will be remembered that the discovery of 
the Cape route conferred a monopoly of 
the Oriental trade upon Portugal and 
Spain. For many years It was the dream of 
commercial Europe to obviate the dangers of 
the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope by 
the discovery of a shorter sea-passage to India. 
By the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
Eastern trade had passed from Spain and Por- 
tugal to Holland. It was now for the Interest 
of the Dutch to find that quicker route which 
had eluded earlier efforts. 

New York (1664). — In 1609 the Dutch East 
India Company sent out Captain Henry Hud- 
son In the ship Half Moon to search for a new 
water-way to the East, which It was believed 
would be found to cut through the northern 
part of North America. Of course Hudson 
did not reach India, but he discovered the beau- 
tiful river which bears his name. He also dis- 
covered that a fur trade carried on between the 

36 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1664-81 37 

Dutch and the Indians would be quite as profit- 
able to Holland as the silk trade In the East. 
With this object In view the Dutch West India 
Company was organized by the merchants of 
Amsterdam. This company claimed In the name 
of Holland all the country between the Connecti- 
cut and Delaware rivers, to which It gave the 
name New Netherland. The principal Dutch 
settlement was New Amsterdam, founded on 
Manhattan Island In 1626. The Dutch colo- 
nists were governed by "patroons," wealthy land- 
owners, resembling In their powers the proprie- 
tors of Maryland and the Carollnas, only Instead 
of being ruled by one, the territory was divided 
among many patroons. This system was not 
favorable to the growth of democratic sentiment 
and habits. Fortunately It did not last long, 
though traces of It lingered until after the Revo- 
lution. The first free public schools in America 
were founded by the Dutch of New York. 

In 1664 England acquired New Netherland 
by a treaty with Holland, and thus became pos- 
sessed of the Atlantic coast from Maine to 
Georgia. The former Dutch territory was given 
to the king's brother, James, Duke of York. 
Both the province of New Netherland and the 
city of New Amsterdam were renamed New 



38 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

York In honor of their royal proprietor. The 
English abolished the patroon system and Intro- 
duced the principle of self-government by means 
of town meetings and popular elections. When 
the Duke of York succeeded to the English 
throne as James II, New York became a crown 
province. 

New Jersey (1664). — The Duke of York gave 
a part of his new province to his two friends, 
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Al- 
though a proprietary colony until 1702, when It 
passed to the crown, New Jersey enjoyed a large 
measure of self-government. Its early history 
Is uninteresting and of small importance. The 
northern portion was first settled by the Dutch. 
Germans and Swedes were scattered here and 
there, but the history of the colony properly be- 
gins with Its occupation by the English, who 
mainly comprised the population. 

Farming was the sole occupation of the peo- 
ple of New Jersey. There was no commerce, 
the people depending upon New York and Vir- 
ginia to supply Its miscellaneous needs. 

Pennsylvania (1681). — The colonial history of 
Pennsylvania, like that of Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland, is insep- 
arably linked with religious associations. About 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1664-81 39 

the middle of the seventeenth century the sect of 
Quakers, or Society of Friends, sprang up in 
England. Its members believed that God made 
known His will to every man's heart without the 
aid of popes, bishops, priests, or pastors ; there- 
fore every man should be free to choose his own 
religion without Interference from church or 
state. They believed In the equality of mankind, 
and expressed this belief by adopting simplicity 
in dress, language, and manners, and in treating 
all human beings with equal politeness ; not mak- 
ing an exception of the king, in whose presence 
other men removed their hats. They disap- 
proved of war under any and all circumstances 
and of many other practices which, though sanc- 
tioned by authority, appeared to them opposed 
to the spirit of Christianity. 

But the essential point of difference between 
the Quakers and most religious organizations 
of their time Is that while the others invaria- 
bly attempted, as soon as they became strong 
enough, to force their doctrines and practices 
upon the rest of the community, the Quakers 
showed no desire to Interfere with the rights 
of those who differed from them in belief. 
The Quaker spirit of independence was resented 
by the Established Church, which persecuted 



40 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Friends, as It had the Puritans and the 
Separatists, with great severity. 

Among the converts to Quakerism was Will- 
iam Penn, a young man twenty years of age, the 
son of an admiral In the British Navy. He was 
wealthy, educated, refined, and Intelligent, far 
above his spiritual mentors In social rank. The 
University of Oxford promptly expelled him 
from Its roll of students for refusing to attend 
the services of the Church of England. His 
father sent him abroad in the hope that the gay 
life of Paris would cure his son of his Quaker 
ideas. But the young man returned more than 
ever convinced of their truth, and wrote many 
pamphlets In defence of Quaker beliefs, for 
which he suffered Imprisonment four times. 

In 1670 Admiral Penn died. During his life- 
time he had loaned the king, Charles II, a great 
deal of money, which his Majesty had never 
taken the trouble to repay. William Penn, hav- 
ing in mind the purpose of founding In America 
a colony where all Christians might dwell to- 
gether on the basis of the Golden Rule, signified 
his willingness, as the heir, to receive instead of 
cash a tract of land in full discharge of the debt 
due the paternal creditor. The king was glad to 
get oft so easily, for he had extravagant habits 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1664-81 41 

and required all his money for personal pleas- 
ures. 

In 1 68 1 a charter was given to William Penn 
conveying to him a vast estate in America and 
making him the " true and absolute proprietary 
of the country," with power to enact laws, create 
courts, and appoint judges. 

Penn at once sent out several hundred emi- 
grants to Pennsylvania, and the next year he him- 
self followed with nearly a hundred Quakers. 

Although Penn had received his province in 
legal form from the king he chose to consider 
the rights of the red men. Shortly after his 
arrival he met the Indians in council under a 
large elm-tree, and there bought the land from 
them on their own terms. A treaty of friend- 
ship was made between the Indians and the pro- 
prietor, which remained unbroken as long as the 
Quakers held control of Pennsylvania. 

William Penn was not ambitious for personal 
power or distinction. His sole design was to 
found a commonwealth where all Christians of 
whatever sect could dwell together in peace. In 
order to insure the largest measure of freedom 
for the people of Pennsylvania he drew up the 
" Frame of Government," by which he volun- 
tarily limited forever both his own power and 



42 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

that of the proprietors who should succeed 
him. " I propose," said he, " to leave myself 
and my successors no power of doing mischief; 
so that the will of one man may not hinder the 
good of the whole country." It granted liberty 
of conscience to all who believed in one Almighty 
God, but limited the right to vote and to hold 
office to those who professed some form of Prot- 
estant Christianity. The influence of the Frame 
of Government may be seen in the four subse- 
quent constitutions of the State of Pennsylvania, 
in the constitutions of other States, and to some 
extent In the Federal Constitution Itself. 

Philadelphia was founded in 1682. The 
name Is of Greek derivation, signifying " broth- 
erly love," and well Illustrates the liberal prin- 
ciples which inspired the acts of William Penn 
and his Quaker followers. Pennsylvania was 
the freest, the most democratic, the most pros- 
perous colony in America. Philadelphia grew 
rapidly, and until after the Revolution was the 
largest and most Important city In the colonies. 

The People. — A colony possessing such ex- 
traordinary advantages could not fail to attract 
universal attention. The soil was fertile, the 
government free, and religious Hberty prevailed. 
From many lands men and women came to en- 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1664-81 43 

joy the benefits of Penn's commonwealth. Vol- 
taire thought seriously of migrating thither, de- 
claring that it was " the only place on earth 
where peace had fled, banished as she was from 
every other region." 

The first people to settle in Pennsylvania 
after the Quakers were the Germans. They 
made very desirable colonists, being honest, in- 
telligent, thrifty, and peaceable. They were ex- 
cellent farmers and business men. Some of 
them owned printing establishments and pub- 
lished books and periodicals. The first Bible 
printed In the United States In a civilized lan- 
guage was a German Bible issued by a German- 
town publisher in 1743, thirty-nine years before 
the first English Bible was printed In any British 
colony. 

The Scotch-Irish were people of Scotch de- 
scent living in the north of Ireland. They were 
Presbyterian in faith, and came to America soon 
after the Quakers to escape the Intolerant treat- 
ment of the Church of England. Being of 
aggressive temperament, fond of danger and ex- 
citement, they settled on the frontier. They be- 
lieved that the best way to deal with the Indians 
was to fight them, not to adopt the friendly fash- 
ion of the Quakers. At least seven presidents 



44 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of the United States have been of Scotch-Irish 
descent. 

Besides the English, Germans, and Scotch- 
Irish there were Dutch, French Huguenots, and 
Welshman, and in the Wyoming Valley a con- 
siderable number of New Englanders. As the 
years passed foreign immigration continued to 
increase. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary 
War Pennsylvania had a larger variety of na- 
tionalities than was to be found in any other col- 
ony. Notwithstanding the diversity of race, lan- 
guage, and religion the people lived together in 
harmony and good-will. The very fact that 
there were so many nationalities and religious 
sects made it impossible for any one of them to 
frame or administer laws in its own behalf or 
to tyrannize over the others. 

It is worthy of note that the first organized 
protest against slavery was uttered in a paper 
drawn up by the Mennonites of Germantown in 
1688. At a later date (1776) the Pennsylvania 
Quakers ordered all members of their society to 
free their slaves. It was largely due to the de- 
termined stand of the Quakers that the first 
emancipation act in the history of the world — 
so far as African slavery is concerned — was 
passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1780. 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1664-81 45 

Pennsylvania remained under the proprietary 
government of the Penn family until the Revo- 
lutionary War, when the State purchased the In- 
terests of the heirs. 

Delaware — the " Territories of Pennsylvania " 
(1682). — In 1638 the Swedes, desiring to get a 
foothold in North America, made a settlement 
on the site of the present city of Wilmington, 
Del., and claimed an extensive area which they 
called New Sweden. In 1655 ^^^ Dutch con- 
quered New Sweden, which then became a part 
of New Netherland. When New Netherland 
was annexed by the Enghsh, Delaware became 
a part of New York. 

In 1682 William Penn, desiring to obtain for 
his province a frontage on the Atlantic, pur- 
chased the *' Three Counties," as Delaware was 
then called, and annexed them to Pennsylvania 
under the name of the " Territories of Pennsyl- 
vania." The people were granted a liberal 
charter similar to the Frame of Government, 
but acknowledged the same executive head. The 
" Territories " continued to be a part of the 
province of Pennsylvania until 1776, when they 
declared their independence and entered Into a 
separate political existence as the State of Dela- 
ware. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 

THE French and Indian War was sim- 
ply a phase of the great Seven Years* 
War, which Involved most of the na- 
tions of Europe from 1756 to 1763 and In 
which France and England played leading parts 
on opposite sides. As between these two na- 
tions, the field of strife Included not only Eu- 
rope, but America and distant India. That part 
of the struggle which took place In America we 
call the French and Indian War, because the 
Indians as a general rule allied themselves with 
the French. But the Indians played a second- 
ary part. It was a conflict for the control of 
North America between two great empires rep- 
resenting opposite principles of social organiza- 
tion, of government, and of religion. 

England and France had been enemies for 
many centuries. Before the Seven Years' War 
they had fought for the possession of American 
territory. From 1689 to 1748 there were three 

46 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 47 

European wars between these nations, and each 
had Its counterpart In America. In 17 13 
France surrendered Acadia (Nova Scotia), 
Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay to England. 

These colonial wars are known as King Will- 
iam's, Queen Anne's, and King George's wars, 
deriving their names from the sovereigns of 
England during whose reigns they took place. 
They were merely forerunners of the great de- 
cisive struggle which was to determine whether 
the future civilization of America would be Eng- 
lish or French. 

It was after the close of King George's War 
that the tragic expulsion of the Acadlans oc- 
curred. When Great Britain acquired Nova 
Scotia In 1 7 13 the French Inhabitants refused to 
take the oath of allegiance to their conquerors. 
They were a peaceful and contented people 
who lived quite apart from the rest of the world. 
After forty years of British rule they still re- 
tained their French language and customs. Al- 
though taking no part In the wars they were ac- 
cused by the British of fostering hostility to the 
Government. In 1755 by a merciless decree of 
the King of England the Acadlans were torn 
from their homes and forcibly deported to dis- 
tant parts, while their lands were confiscated by 



48 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Government. Many escaped, but more than 
six thousand were scattered throughout the Eng- 
lish colonies. Some made their way to Louisi- 
ana, where their descendants are still to be 
found. Longfellow has Immortalized the mem- 
ory of the Acadians In " Evangeline," a poem 
based upon a romantic episode of the expulsion. 

Differences in French and English Character. — 
From every point of view the French and Eng- 
lish colonists of America differed widely from 
each other. The English came here to cultivate 
farms, to develop the country, and to enjoy civil 
and religious liberty. They were independent 
and self-reliant. For a long time the mother- 
country exercised but slight control over her 
colonists, allowing them to work out their des- 
tiny in their own way. 

France, on the contrary, never permitted her 
colonial subjects to manage their own affairs. 
Self-government never developed among the 
French in America, nor did they strike their 
roots deep in the soil as did the English. The 
French colonists were for the most part fur- 
traders, soldiers looking for military laurels, 
and missionaries trying to convert the In- 
dians, and adopting many of the Indian modes 
of life In order to succeed. 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 49 

France had many forts, but few settlements; 
England many settlements, but few forts. 
France stood for absolute monarchy, Roman 
Catholicism, and military ideals; England for 
limited monarchy. Protestantism, self-govern- 
ment, commerce, and agriculture. Whether 
America should develop along French or Eng- 
lish lines could be determined only on the field 
of battle. 

The French and English also differed In their 
treatment of the Indians. The English looked 
upon the red men as natural enemies who had 
no rights to life or property. The generous and 
humane treatment of the Indians by the Penn- 
sylvania Quakers is In striking contrast to the 
cruel policy pursued by the majority of English 
colonists. 

The French, who were just and merciful, 
pursued the opposite course. French trappers 
and hunters adopted Indian dress and married 
Indian wives. French priests converted the red 
men to the Catholic religion. When the strug- 
gle broke out between the English and the 
French the Indians naturally took the side of 
their friends, not knowing or caring about the 
deeper issues at stake. Only the Iroquois fed- 
eration of New York, known as the " Six Na- 



50 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

tions," favored the English. Their sympathetic 
attitude Is chiefly to be accounted for on the 
basis of their traditionary and Inveterate hatred 
for the Algonquin division of their race, which 
had allied Itself with the French. 

The Growth of French Dominion. — We have 
already seen that the French gained their first 
American foothold In Canada. Among the most 
serviceable of the French explorers were the 
Jesuit missionaries, self-sacrificing, courageous 
priests who were sent out by the Church of 
Rome to Christianize the Indians. The names 
of Joliet and Marquette, who risked death and 
torture to carry the gospel to the savages, are 
honored alike in the history of America, of 
France, and of the Christian Church. 

In 1682 Robert Cavalier, Sleur de la Salle, 
floated down the Mississippi River and claimed 
the Immense valley between the Alleghany and 
the Rocky Mountains In the name of the King 
of France. Throughout this region the French 
established forts and trading stations. Many of 
the great cities of the South and of the Middle 
West started in this way. Detroit was founded 
in 1 70 1, Mobile in 1706, and New Orleans in 
1 7 1 8 as military and trading posts. These forts 
were of great advantage, because In case of war 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 51 

with England they would enable the French to 
control the Mississippi Valley. 

For many years there were no contentions 
between the English and French settlers. The 
French confined their efforts to the West and 
North-west, while the English remained on the 
seaboard. 

It was inevitable that the French should de- 
sire to bring Canada and Louisiana, the north- 
ern and southern extremities of their possessions, 
as near together as possible. This they at- 
tempted to do by making a chain of about sixty 
forts between the St. Lawrence River and New 
Orleans. At the same time the English, feeling 
cramped in their narrow strip of territory east 
of the Alleghanies, turned their eyes to the West 
and realized for the first time the dangerous 
proximity of the French. 

The Final Conflict.— In 1754 the French, reso- 
lute in their purpose to keep the English from 
crossing the mountains, built Fort Duquesne 
on the site of the present city of Pittsburgh. 
This was the signal for war. The next year the 
British Government sent over a small army un- 
der the command of General Braddock to drive 
the French out of the West. General Braddock 
was a brave officer, but unused to Indian meth- 



52 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

ods of warfare. He had had plenty of experi- 
ence on European battle-fields, where armies 
fought In full view of each other on open plains. 
But the Indians hid behind rocks and trees. 
They were sure marksmen, and while they 
brought down their foe at every shot they them- 
selves could not be seen. 

General Braddock marched against Fort Du- 
quesne, but was attacked near the Monongahela 
River by the French and their Indian allies. 
The British were routed and General Braddock 
was slain. Had It not been for the cool hero- 
Ism of George Washington, then twenty-three 
years old and a member of Braddock's staff, 
hardly a man In the British Army would have 
been left alive. 

Comparison of Military Strength. — At the out- 
break of the war the French colonists numbered 
about sixty thousand. The English colonial 
population was nearly a million and a half. But 
if the French were Inferior in point of numbers, 
they possessed certain advantages over their op- 
ponents. Canada, the French stronghold, was 
well adapted by nature for defence. It could 
be reached only by way of Lake Champlain or 
the St. Lawrence River, both of which were con- 
trolled by the French. Canada was governed 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 53 

as a single great colony directly by the King of 
France, who provided men and money to carry 
on the war. This enabled the French to make 
rapid military movements without having to 
wait for the slow discussions and tardy support 
of legislatures. 

The English, who were largely self-govern- 
ing, to a great extent provided for their own 
needs. They were obliged to wait until their 
colonial assemblies would vote men and sup- 
plies, which was seldom promptly done, the 
jealousies of colonial governments preventing 
swift and united action. 

The French had abler generals at first than 
the English and vast numbers of Indian allies. 
For three years the French were victorious. 
But when in 1757 William Pitt was placed at 
the head of affairs in England the fortune of 
war turned in favor of British arms. Incom- 
petent generals were replaced by good ones, 
and one after another the French forts fell 
into English hands. Fort Duquesne was taken 
in 1758, and renamed Pittsburgh in honor 
of William Pitt. The expulsion of the 
French from Pennsylvania threw open to Eng- 
lish settlement the region beyond the Alle- 
ghanies. 



54 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Fall of Louisburg and Quebec. — After 
Queen Anne's War, when the French lost 
so much territory in the north, they determined 
to guard the St. Lawrence Valley against the 
future by constructing the fortress of Louis- 
burg on Cape Breton Island. It was twenty 
years In building, its walls were two miles and a 
half In circumference, and it was regarded as 
Impregnable. Nevertheless Louisburg was 
taken by New England troops in 1745, after a 
six weeks' siege, though It was ceded back to 
France In 1748. Ten years later It again suc- 
cumbed to English prowess at the hands of Gen- 
eral Amherst and General James Wolfe — the 
latter perhaps the most brilliant soldier In the 
military history of England, and but thirty-one 
years of age. 

On the morning of September 13, 1759, eight 
thousand French-Canadian soldiers in the for- 
tress of Quebec awoke and saw confronting 
them, on the Plains of Abraham outside the city 
walls, an English army of about four thousand. 
It was commanded by this same General James 
Wolfe. In the darkness of the night the Eng- 
lish troops had climbed a precipice three hun- 
dred feet high, dragging their artillery after 
them. The Marquis de Montcalm, the French 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 55 

commander, was a skilful general and a gallant 
man, but he could not save Quebec. In the bat- 
tle which followed both Wolfe and Montcalm 
were killed. As General Wolfe was dying some 
one told him that the victory was won. He 
replied: "Now God be praised! I die In 
peace.'* 

Montcalm paid his conqueror the tribute 
of a brave man. " Since It Is my misfortune 
to be discomfited and mortally wounded," said 
he, " It Is a great consolation to me to have been 
vanquished by so brave an enemy. If I could 
survive, I would engage to beat three times the 
number of such forces as mine were with one- 
third the number of British troops." When 
told that he must die, he answered: " It is well: 
I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." 
The inferiority of Montcalm's army was due to 
the large percentage of Indians and untrained 
Canadians. 

The fall of Montreal In 1760 practically 
ended the war in America, although the Euro- 
pean struggle continued three years longer. 

Results of the English Conquest. — By the treaty 
of peace signed at Paris In 1763 France surren- 
dered to England all of Canada and the country 
east of the Mississippi River. All the French 



56 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

territory west of the Mississippi, together 
with New Orleans, was ceded to Spain, which 
had been an ally of France in the European war. 
France retained some of the West Indies and 
two small islands in the St. Lawrence. The 
French inhabitants of Canada were allowed to 
retain the Catholic religion. 

The victory over France was the triumph of a 
strong, sturdy, self-reliant people. It deter- 
mined that Anglo-Saxon institutions and Anglo- 
Saxon ideas of self-government should hence- 
forth prevail in America instead of the French 
idea of submission to the will of an absolute 
king. 

English settlers could now push their way 
across the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, build 
towns and engage in commerce and agriculture 
in comparative safety. 

Another important result of the war was to 
loosen the tie that bound the colonies to the 
mother-country. British successes throughout 
the entire series of four international struggles 
had been mainly due to colonial money and to 
the efficiency of colonial troops. The knowl- 
edge of this fact gave the colonists a feeling of 
increased strength and independence. They had 
come Into close contact with each other and they 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 57 

began to feel like Americans rather than 
Englishmen. The French and Indian War 
was the practical training school of many 
of the generals who a few years later were 
to fight to victorious issue the battles of the 
Revolution. 

The Conspiracy of Pontiac. — No sooner was 
peace concluded between England and France 
than the former Indian allies of the French cre- 
ated trouble for their new masters. 

The English made no effort to gain the good- 
will of the red men, but treated them with un- 
disguised contempt. The proud-spirited Indians 
resented this, and secretly encouraged by the 
French plotted to overthrow the English power. 
A conspiracy was formed among many tribes to 
massacre all the English garrisons and settlers 
of the Great Lakes region and the frontiers of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia. The head of the 
conspiracy was Pontiac, probably the greatest of 
all the Indian chiefs in point of talent and native 
virtues. The plot was managed with great 
adroitness. So well-timed was it that every Eng- 
lish garrison was attacked on the same day, and 
all but three were taken. The war continued 
with interruptions for three years, but in the end 
the Indians yielded. The failure of the con- 



58 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

spiracy of Pontlac broke the backbone of Indian 
resistance forever. There have been many Ind- 
ian wars since then, but none ever again seri- 
ously threatened the supremacy of the white 
race. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE COLONIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CEN- 
TURY 

ONE very important consequence of the 
French and Indian War, as we have 
already noted, was to diminish the 
colonial sense of dependence upon Great Britain. 
The colonists for the first time realized their 
own strength and began to regard themselves 
as Americans, not merely as transplanted Brit- 
ons. The growth of this sentiment was aided 
by the physical distance separating England and 
America, and by the fact that the real interests 
of the colonists centred on this side of the ocean. 
But the term American did not have the large 
meaning then that it possesses to-day. To be 
an American in this age means to be a citizen of 
the United States, Irrespective of State or sec- 
tion. In the eighteenth century an American 
was simply a Pennsylvanian, a Virginian, a New 
Englander, or some other provincial, nothing 
more. The various sections differed from each 

59 



6o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

other In climate, In occupation, In social customs 
and Ideals. The fact that there were no rail- 
roads or other facilities for communication 
tended to perpetuate some of these differences. 
It was not until long after the great Civil War 
that the United States became a truly compact 
and fraternal nation. 

Although the colonies were dissimilar In 
minor respects, In serious and fundamental 
things they had much In common. They were 
Inspired by the same spirit of progress, and In 
particular they cherished the principle of repre- 
sentative government In contrast to the aristo- 
cratic and monarchical Ideas of the Old World. 
The people of England had more of the spirit 
and Institutions of democracy than the people of 
continental Europe, but far less than the Ameri- 
cans. 

The total population of the thirteen colonies 
In 1760 was something over a million and a 
half, about equally divided by Mason and 
Dixon's line.* 

* The charter of William Penn fixed the fortieth degree 
north latitude as the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, 
thus excluding Philadelphia and shutting the colony en- 
tirely off from the Delaware Bay. As this was evidently 
not the intent of the charter Penn claimed a portion of 
Maryland as his rightful property. After a long dispute 



THE COLONIES 6i 

The Soutnem Colonies. — Agriculture was the 
chief employment of the people of the South; 
consequently country life greatly predominated 
over town life, and social Interests centred In 
the plantations. Baltimore and Charleston were 
the only Southern cities of size and importance. 
Maryland and Virginia raised large quantities 
of tobacco, which they exported to London, 
while South Carolina was devoted to the culti- 
vation of rice and Indigo. 

The population of the Southern colonies com- 
prised three elements : the planters, the negroes, 
and the '* poor whites." The planters domi- 
nated both the social and the political life of 
their section. Many of them were descended 
from the Cavaliers, who fled to America In the 
previous century when the Stuart line of kings 
was expelled and the Puritans ruled England. 
The planters were a rich, intelligent, and honor- 
able class who gave to our country some of its 
best and wisest men. They lived in large, 
square frame or brick mansions, surrounded by 

the heirs of Penn and those of Lord Baltimore agreed to 
make a new boundary. The line was drawn by Charles 
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two English surveyors, and 
has ever since been known as Mason and Dixon's line. It 
is the conventional line of division between the North and 
the South. 



62 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

well-kept acres, and dispensed a generous hos- 
pitality both to their neighbors and to the stran- 
ger who passed their way. 

The negroes dwelt at some distance" from the 
mansion in small cabins, which were known as 
the " servants' quarters." As a rule they were 
well cared for and their condition was a happy 
one, except in the rice-swamps of the far South, 
where their labor was especially arduous and 
their treatment severe. The ownership of 
slaves, together with his superior Importance in 
the community, made the planter haughty and 
imperious to those who were his Inferiors in 
rank and condition. But It also gave him a 
feeling of responsibility for the welfare of those 
who were dependent upon him, and developed 
some worthy moral qualities In his nature. 

A species of white slavery also existed In some 
of the colonies. A favorite policy of the Brit- 
ish Government was to transport large numbers 
of convicts to America, where they were bound 
out to service for long periods of time. Most 
of them were sent to Maryland and Virginia, 
whose people protested strongly against receiv- 
ing them. 

Many of the voluntary Immigrants were too 
poor to pay for their passage. Such persons 



THE COLONIES 63 

were met on their arrival by individual colonists 
who paid the master of the ship his transporta- 
tion charges. In return the immigrants bound 
themselves to work for their benefactors with- 
out pay, generally for a period of two years, at 
the expiration of which they were given their 
freedom. They were known as " redemption- 
ers." This sort of white servitude existed prin- 
cipally in the South, but to some extent in Penn- 
sylvania. The redemptioners in course of time 
found their way into the substantial and pros- 
perous middle class. Many married Into fam- 
ilies with w^hich they lived. One signed the Dec- 
laration of Independence. 

The Church of England was established by 
law in Maryland, Virginia, and the CaroHnas. 
In Maryland the Roman Catholics had been 
driven out by the Protestants, and all tax-payers 
were compelled to contribute to the support of 
the Episcopal clergy, who were more noted for 
their horse-racing and gambling than for their 
piety. After the Revolution other denomina- 
tions multiplied rapidly throughout the South. 
At the outbreak of the Revolution the College 
of William and Mary was the only Institution 
of higher learning from Maryland to Georgia, 
and that was patronized only by the rich. Law- 



64 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

yers were an influential element of Southern 
society. They were usually the younger sons of 
wealthy planters. 

New England. — New England offered a 
marked contrast in some respects to the Southern 
colonies. Instead of living far apart on great 
plantations the New England people dwelt In 
towns, which were many and prosperous. The 
poor quality of the soil made agriculture less 
productive than In the more fertile regions of the 
West and South. Many persons were therefore 
compelled to engage in trade, fishing, and me- 
chanical pursuits for support. Thus the nature 
of their employment made it necessary for the 
people to live in communities. Then, too, the 
constant peril of Indian attacks In earlier times, 
together with the fact that religious associa- 
tion was a prime duty with the Puritans, gave 
town life an inevitable ascendancy over country 
life. 

Massachusetts and Rhode Island manufact- 
ured considerable quantities of coarse cloth for 
home use. The many swift streams furnished 
abundant water-power for mills and factories. 
There was a great deal of ship-bullding and a 
large miscellaneous commerce with the West 
Indies and Southern Europe. The foundation 



THE COLONIES 65 

of the present varied Industrial life of New 
England was laid back in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. 

Slavery existed to a limited extent. There 
was no opposition to it on moral grounds, such 
as arose a century later. New England ship- 
owners who were deacons in the church thought 
it no sin to engage in the African slave-trade. 
The failure of slavery to take root in New Eng- 
land was due partly to the rigor of the climate, 
but chiefly to the fact that slave-labor was not 
adapted to the pursuits of that section. 

Class distinctions were not so sharply drawn 
as in the South, and extremes of wealth and pov- 
erty were not so marked. But it would be a mis- 
take to suppose that there was no aristocracy. 
There is an aristocracy In every community, a 
class of citizens whose superiority is commonly 
conceded. In New England this aristocratic ele- 
ment consisted of the clergy, the merchants, the 
magistrates, and the school-teachers. Unlike 
the Southern planters, however, they did not have 
a monopoly in government. Political power in 
New England was shared by the people. 

The Congregational Church was established 
by law In every colony, except Rhode Island, in 
about the same degree that the Church of Eng- 



66 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

land was established in the South. It continued 
to be supported by public taxes in Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut as late as the nine- 
teenth century. Education went hand in hand 
with religion. Harvard, Yale, and Brown were 
flourishing institutions when the Revolution 
broke out. 

The Middle Colonies. — The population of New 
England and the South was mainly of English 
stock, but that of the Middle colonies included 
many nationalities. Democratic sentiment was 
wide-spread and deeply rooted, especially in 
Pennsylvania, which had a more nearly equal 
distribution of wealth than any other colony 
North or South. The Quakers came the near- 
est to constituting an aristocratic class in Penn- 
sylvania. New York had a very real aristocracy 
in the Dutch Knickerbocker families who were 
descended from the early patroons. Slavery 
existed to a greater extent in the Middle colonies 
than in New England, but it was not a vital 
part of the industrial system except in Dela- 
ware. 

The people derived their support mainly 
from agriculture. The farms of eastern Penn- 
sylvania were the richest to be found in the entire 
country. In this colony manufacturing had also 



THE COLONIES 67 

begun, giving promise of that vast development 
which it was to attain In the future. The iron 
mines of Pennsylvania were opened in 1720. 
By the middle of the century large quantities of 
this ore were exported to England. New York 
and Philadelphia were the centres of a large ex- 
port trade in grain, flour, and furs with Europe 
and the West Indies. 

The Church of England was established in all 
the Middle colonies save Pennsylvania, where 
religious freedom was permitted every one, even 
Roman Catholics who were proscribed and penal- 
ized elsewhere. Popular education was generally 
neglected in the Middle colonies owing to the 
unwillingness of the Church of England author- 
ities to intrust it to those who were not of their 
faith. The Quakers, Germans, and Moravians 
had a few excellent private schools In the larger 
towns of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and 
there were several institutions of higher grade 
that have since become widely celebrated. The 
University of Pennsylvania was founded in 
1740, and soon took equal rank with the older 
colleges of New England. Unlike them its pur- 
pose was not to train the clergy, but to provide a 
liberal education for all the youth of the prov- 
ince who might choose to attend. It was the 



68 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

first collegiate Institution In America which was 
not sectarian In Its origin, and the first to offer 
courses of study In law, medicine, and science. 
King's College, now Columbia University, and 
the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, were 
founded a few years later. 

The Crudity of Colonial Life. — The most no- 
ticeable feature of American life In the eigh- 
teenth century as compared with our own times 
is the entire absence one hundred and fifty years 
ago of many things which we of to-day regard 
as indispensable to safety, convenience, and pros- 
perity. The great Inventions, the amazing In- 
crease of scientific knowledge, the general util- 
ization of natural forces to do the physical work 
of the world, these are In the main the contribu- 
tions of the nineteenth century to the comfort 
and advancement of mankind. 

The American of the eighteenth century trav- 
elled as the world had travelled for thousands 
of years, the only difference being a greater in- 
convenience Incidental to the crude and unsettled 
condition of America. Land travel was either 
by horseback or by stage-coach. Frequently a 
wife rode behind her husband on the same steed. 
Stage-coaches were uncomfortable affairs, hav- 
ing no springs and frequently no backs to the 



THE COLONIES 69 

seats. Roads were usually bad ; some towns had 
none, but used the old Indian trails. The best 
roads were to be found In Pennsylvania. There 
were few bridges; rivers had to be forded or 
crossed on improvised and dangerous rafts. To 
go from New York to Philadelphia by stage- 
coach required two or three days, and from New 
York to Boston six. Travel by slow sailing- 
vessel on river, lake, and coast was safe and 
agreeable compared to the vicissitudes of the 
stage-coach. The majority of people obviated 
the inconvenience and expense of travel by re- 
maining at home all their lives. 

Mails were few and Irregular. In 1775 
there were only thirty-seven weekly newspapers 
m the whole country and no dallies. These 
journals were poorly printed and contained very 
meagre and aged news accounts, being chiefly 
filled with miscellaneous matter, such as poetry, 
sermons, political essays, and local advertise- 
ments. 

Physicians were persons of dignity and im- 
portance, but of very limited professional knowl- 
edge. They administered remedies made of bit- 
ter herbs and curious compounds which would 
astonish the practitioner of to-day. No matter 
what the disease might be, their usual practice 



70 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

was to bleed the patient. Sometimes a quart or 
more of blood was drawn from a sick person 
on the supposition that such treatment was bene- 
ficial. Washington died from loss of blood 
drawn by his physician to cure laryngitis. 
Philadelphia was far In advance of all other 
colonial towns and cities In medical learning — 
a distinction which to a less degree It may still 
be said to retain. The University of Pennsyl- 
vania was the pioneer In the systematic study of 
medicine. Lectures in this subject were given as 
early as 1762, and In 1765 a special department 
was organized. Young doctors In other parts 
of the country equipped themselves for general 
practice by serving a brief apprenticeship In the 
offices of older physicians, and then went out 
with drugs and scalpel to prey upon the com- 
munity. 

Government. — The most striking fact In the 
political history of the colonies up to the middle 
of the eighteenth century Is their unusual degree, 
of freedom from British control. The self-gov- 
ernment of the thirteen British dependencies 
offers a sharp contrast to the minute and strict 
supervision which France exercised over Canada 
and to the general colonial policy of the nations 
of that day. 



THE COLONIES 71 

One reason for this extraordinary liberality 
was the necessity which the British Govern- 
ment early realized of Insuring the good-will 
of the colonists as a guarantee of protection 
against the French. Another reason perhaps 
was the feeling of relief experienced by the 
home authorities at getting rid of the Puritans, 
the Quakers, and the Roman Catholics so easily 
and so cheaply. Connecticut and Rhode Island 
in particular had a larger measure of Inde- 
pendence than Is enjoyed by any colony In the 
British Empire at the present day. They elected 
their own governors and had all the powers of 
sovereignty except the right to make treaties 
with foreign nations. So liberal were their 
charters that these Instruments continued In use 
as State constitutions until 18 18 and 1842 re- 
spectively. 

In the case of the other eleven colonies the 
governors were appointed by the king or, as in 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, by the proprietors. 
These governors had extensive military and civil 
powers, but no control over the public treasury, 
that being completely In the hands of the as- 
semblies, which were everywhere elected by 
the people. The governors and the colon- 
ial legislatures engaged in frequent quarrels, 



72 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

but as the assemblies held the public purse 
the people through their representatives usually 
won. 

Although the governors had the power of 
veto they seldom dared use it, for if they did 
the assemblies were almost certain to retaliate 
by withholding their salaries. The same meas- 
ure of coercion was also applied to the judges, 
who like the governors were appointed by the 
king or the proprietor. A New York judge 
who gave a decision against a member of the 
legislature was promptly punished by having 
his salary reduced. The fact that all colonial 
officials, whether elected or appointed, depended 
for their salaries upon the legislatures consti- 
tuted a most effective weapon In the hands of 
the people, who were thus practically Indepen- 
dent of external control. 

The franchise was restricted in every colony 
by property qualifications and religious tests, 
even in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, which 
were noted above the rest for their liberality. 

Town and County. — In New England, where 
the people were grouped In communities, the 
town naturally became the political unit. All 
local questions were decided In " town-meeting,'* 
which met several times each year and where 



THE COLONIES 73 

discussion was open to any voter. The town- 
meeting proved an excellent political training 
school. Here the people learned the art of de- 
bate and acquired an experience In public affairs 
which has contributed largely to the success 
of the democratic principle of government In 
America. 

In the South, where towns were few, the 
county was the unit. As a general rule county 
officers were not elected, but were appointed by 
the governors from the class of planters and 
lawyers. From this practice It resulted that only 
a few became proficient In the science of gov- 
ernment. 

The Middle colonies contained numerous 
trading towns and large agricultural regions. 
Hence we find a mixed type bearing resem- 
blances to both the town and county systems. In 
Pennsylvania county officers were elected by the 
people, while in New York the affairs of the 
county were managed by a board of supervisors 
who were chosen by the towns. 

These local systems have been extended west- 
ward by migration along parallels of latitude. 
Kentucky was settled by Virginians, who estab- 
lished in their new homes the county system. In 
northern Ohio, which was peopled chiefly by 



74 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

New Englanders, the town became the political 
unit; while southern Ohio, settled by Pennsyl- 
vanians, adopted that variety of the mixed type 
which prevailed In the locality whence the immi- 
grants came. 



T^ 



CHAPTER VIII 

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 

HE French and Indian War by remov- 
■ Ing the only rival that threatened 

British dominion In America enabled 
England to turn her undivided attention to 
the Internal affairs of her colonies, which had 
so long enjoyed Immunity from Interference. 
From 1763 until the outbreak of the Revolution 
the British Government tried by a continuous 
abridgment of their political and commercial 
privileges to gain a firmer hold of Its American 
possessions. 

At that time all nations held the theory that 
colonies existed for the sole benefit of the parent 
state. That they had rights which the mother- 
country was bound to respect was not recognized 
by the governments of Europe. While England 
held this view In common with other nations, 
unlike them she had never acted upon It, but had, 
as we have already seen, allowed her colonies 
to develop about as they pleased. The unfortu- 

75 



76 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

nate change in her colonial policy was chiefly the 
work of the king, George III, who was deter- 
mined to exercise a larger measure of royal au- 
thority than the Constitution of England sanc- 
tioned or than his talents fitted him for. He 
was seconded by incapable advisers and by Par- 
liament, which was singularly blind to true 
British interests. 

The Navigation Acts. — The first step in the 
Government's new policy was to enlarge and 
strictly enforce the Navigation Acts, a series of 
laws which had been passed from time to time 
during the previous hundred years to give Eng- 
land a monopoly of colonial trade by limiting 
manufactures and forbidding commerce with 
other countries. 

The way in which the mother-country ex- 
pected to derive benefit from this measure was 
by having all colonial products which were 
intended for European countries shipped to 
England first, to be resold to foreign dealers 
by English merchants, who would thus make a 
profit. 

As the Navigation Acts had been practi- 
cally ignored by the British authorities them- 
selves for more than a century, the attempt to 
revive them and to impose new commercial re- 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 77 

strictions upon the colonies at the very moment 
of their most prosperous development was in- 
dignantly resented in America. To evade the 
laws the colonists resorted to smuggling. 

The Sending of British Troops. — It was also 
determined by the Government to establish a 
permanent standing army of ten thousand Brit- 
ish troops in America. The reason alleged was 
that they were necessary for protection against 
the Indians. The colonists, however, believed 
that the real object was to destroy colonial lib- 
erties. 

Taxation Without Representation. — The third 
"feature of the Government's programme was its 
purpose to make the colonies partially defray 
the expense of maintaining these garrisons by a 
tax amounting to one-third of their support.*\ It 
was not the amount of the tax, but the principle 
that the colonists resented. They thought it un- 
just that the British Parliament In which they 
were given no representation should force them 
to contribute to the maintenance of a foreign 
army sent to their country with hostile intent in 
execution of a law which they themselves had no 
part in framing. 

The Stamp Act and the Quartering Act. — In 
1764 Parliament enacted that all bills, notes, 



78 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

marriage certificates, and other legal instru- 
ments must be written on paper bearing the Gov- 
ernment stamp. The revenue derived from the 
sale of stamps was to be employed in colonial 
defence. The purpose of the law was not un- 
usual or tyrannical, but the colonists objected be- 
cause it was inconsistent with their own practices 
and conception of liberty. 

The Quartering Act required the colonists to 
furnish the British troops stationed among them 
with quarters and provisions. This law was 
directly opposed to a well-known principle of 
the British Constitution which the colonists 
claimed existed for their benefit as well as for 
that of native-born Englishmen. 

The Colonies Remonstrate. — These acts of 
Parliament called out strong expressions of dis- 
sent from some of the colonial legislatures. The 
Virginia Assembly passed resolutions asserting 
that it alone had the right to tax the people of 
Virginia, which right could only be lawfully ex- 
ercised by the people themselves or by their 
chosen representatives. 

Massachusetts invited her sister colonies to 
send delegates to New York to address a remon- 
strance to the king and Parliament. Nine ac- 
cepted, and the convention met in October, 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 79 

1765. 5n a '' Declaration of the Rights and 
Grievances of the Colonists in America " it de- 
nied the right of Parliament to tax the colonies 
without representation. There was no threat 
of resistance, but the action of the delegates 
showed that they were supported by public sen- 
timent. 

Benjamin Franklin was sent to England to 
argue the American cause before a committee 
of Parliament. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 
made a powerful speech against the Stamp Act. 
The objectionable measure was repealed, but 
the victory was fruitless, for Parliament still 
insisted upon the right to tax the colonies with- 
out their consent. 

The Townshend Act. — In 1767 Parliament 
passed a new revenue law which imposed a tax 
upon many articles of common use, including 
tea. The proceeds of the tax were to pay the 
salaries of the royal governors and the judges 
with the object of releasing these officials from 
the control of colonial legislatures which had 
long been accustomed to carry their points by 
the simple expedient of withholding salaries 
from those who opposed their will. 

The Townshend Act was received with a 
storm of protest. John Dickinson wrote a series 



8o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of articles under the caption " Letters of a Penn- 
sylvania Farmer," which were published In the 
Pennsylvania Chronicle and circulated through- 
out the colonies, and even translated Into French 
and published In Paris. They attacked the posi- 
tion of Parliament, and had a powerful Influence 
In preparing the popular mind for armed resist- 
ance. Led by Massachusetts and Virginia, the 
colonies joined In an agreement not to purchase 
any of the articles which were subject to the 
Townshend duties. This policy proved effectual, 
and In 1770 all the duties were repealed except 
the tax on tea. It was an Insubstantial triumph, 
for Parliament refused to concede the principle 
for which the colonies contended, but Insisted 
as before upon Its unlimited right to tax them 
with or without their consent. 

Opposition Becomes Violent. — The British min- 
istry continued to Issue orders sure to Irritate a 
people accustomed to self-government. Numer- 
ous quarrels in the nature of riots occurred be- 
tween the British troops and the people. On 
March 5, 1770, a crowd of citizens In Boston 
got Into an affray with a British guard. The 
soldiers fired, killing four and wounding several 
of the mob. This affair became celebrated as 
the " Boston Massacre." The royal governor 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 8i 

of North Carolina at the head of fifteen hun- 
dred troops fired upon an assemblage of people 
who were meeting for an orderly purpose. 
These incidents created a sensation throughout 
the country because they showed the peril to 
popular liberties which was certain to result 
whenever civil authority was replaced by mili- 
tary power. 

Late in 1773 ship-loads of tea were sent to 
various American ports from New Hampshire 
to South Carolina. Philadelphia ordered the 
Delaware River pilots not to bring any tea-ships 
up the river. A vessel that reached Chester 
was sent back to England. New York, Charles- 
ton, and other cities took similar action. The 
tea designed for Massachusetts met with a more 
spectacular fate. Some of the citizens of Bos- 
ton, disguised as Indians, boarded British ships 
one night and threw the tea with which they 
were laden Into the harbor. Such persistent 
opposition enraged the Government and made 
it more than ever determined to establish Brit- 
ish sovereignty In America. 

The " Intolerable Acts." — Massachusetts was 
particularly violent in resistance to British 
measures of repression. It had borne the brunt 
of the French and Indian War, and on that ac- 



82 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

count deemed Itself entitled to consideration 
from the home Government; morever, It had 
lost many of the powers of sovereignty which 
had once placed It In the class with Connecticut 
and Rhode Island, and resentment still rankled 
In the hearts of Massachusetts patriots. 

Early In 1774 Parliament passed a series of 
drastic laws directed mainly against Massachu- 
setts. The first closed the port of Boston to 
commerce until the town should pay the amount 
of damage caused by the riots. 

A second greatly extended the power of the 
crown over the colony by declaring void certain 
popular provisions of the charter. 

A third provided that officers and soldiers 
who In resisting riots might render themselves 
liable to the charge of homicide should be sent 
to England for trial Instead of being tried In 
the colonial courts. The Americans believed 
that this would encourage soldiers to shoot 
citizens. 

A fourth act provided for the quartering of 
British troops on the people, and was Intended 
to establish military despotism In Massachu- 
setts. 

Finally certain political and religious privi- 
leges were given to the French Catholics of 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 83 

Canada, and territory claimed by Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, and Virginia was annexed to 
the province of Quebec. The purpose of the 
Government was to satisfy the French Cana- 
dians, so that they would feel no Inclination to 
unite with the disaffected colonies. The latter 
believed that this law Imperilled both Protestant- 
ism and Anglo-Saxon Ideals and institutions. 

General Gage was appointed by the king 
Governor of Massachusetts. When he attempt- 
ed to enforce the " Intolerable Acts " the other 
colonies rallied to the defence of Massachusetts, 
feeling that her cause was now their own, as 
similar legislation might at any time be enacted 
against them. 

The First Continental Congress. — On Septem- 
ber 5, 1774, a convention met In Philadelphia 
which was attended by delegates from every col- 
ony except Georgia. Some of the most distin- 
guished men in America were present; among 
them George Washington, Edmund Randolph, 
and Patrick Henry from Virginia; John and 
Samuel Adams from Massachusetts; John Jay 
from New York, and John Dickinson from 
Pennsylvania. 

A declaration of rights was issued denying 
the authority of Parliament over the colonies, 



84 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and asserting that the colonial assemblies should 
legislate for America. Addresses were pre- 
pared to the king disclaiming any desire for 
separation from the crown, and to the people 
of England. The people of Canada were In- 
vited to join In a protest to Great Britain. It 
was further agreed to neither Import nor export 
goods from or to the mother-country or her 
possessions In the West Indies. Finally the col- 
onies pledged themselves to support Massachu- 
setts In case her opposition to the acts of Par- 
liament Involved her In war with Great Britain. 
The First Blood of the Revolution.— The 
high-handed proceedings of General Gage soon 
Impelled the people of Massachusetts to prepare 
for armed resistance. A quantity of military 
stores was secretly deposited at Concord, a small 
village about twenty miles from Boston. Gen- 
eral Gage, being apprised of It, sent a detach- 
ment of troops to seize the stores. As they 
passed through Lexington In the early morning 
of April 19, 1775, they encountered one hun- 
dred Massachusetts militiamen, who during the 
night had been Informed of the British move- 
ment. When ordered to disperse, the " embat- 
tled farmers " refused, whereupon the British 
opened fire, killing seven and wounding others. 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 85 

The troops then proceeded to Concord and de- 
stroyed the few remaining stores which the citi- 
zens had not been able to remove. 

Meanwhile the militia swarmed in from the 
adjacent country, and when the British were 
ready to return to Boston they found an enemy 
behind every rock, tree, and fence along the 
road. Exposed to a hidden and continuous fire 
the British presented an easy target for the 
skilled provincial marksmen. Their retreat be- 
came a rout, and when they reached Boston that 
night they had lost nearly three hundred of their 
number. 

Thus began the memorable war which was to 
divide the British Empire and create a new na- 
tion. 

The Meaning of the Coming Struggle.— Neither 
the arbitrary British policy of taxation without 
representation, the quartering of foreign troops 
on the inhabitants in time of peace, the objec- 
tionable system of commercial restriction, nor 
any other factor taken singly or together will 
fully explain the revolt of the united American 
colonies. Back of it all lay the unconquerable 
spirit of freedom, inherent and overwhelming 
in the American people, which not only resented 
the abuse of power, but which was intolerant 



86 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of control or Interference In any form, however 
legitimate, when exercised by an authority ex- 
ternal to themselves. They had grown Into a 
distinct people, broader minded, more energetic, 
more Intelligent than their kindred across the 
sea, and submission to foreign rule was no 
longer compatible with ambition and self-re- 
spect. 

Nowhere was there a large majority In favor 
of war. In New York, South Carolina, and 
Georgia the war-party was In a minority; but 
It was everywhere better organized and made 
effective use of Its strength, very often by treat- 
ing Its opponents to coats of tar and feathers 
and employing other forms of violent persua- 
sion. 

After hostilities commenced many Loyalists, 
or " Tories," as the Americans who sympa- 
thized with the British Government were called, 
took up their residence In Quebec, Nova Scotia, 
and other colonies of the crown. About fifty 
thousand enlisted at different periods of the war 
In the British Army. The Loyalists were nearly 
all persons of wealth and social standing, and 
the disappearance of so conservative and profit- 
able an element was felt to the detriment of 
America for many years. 



CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 87 

The English people were by no means unani- 
mous in approval of their Government's attitude 
toward America. The City of London, which 
had previously never failed to give enthusiastic 
support to foreign wars, opposed from first to 
last the attempt to coerce America. Some of 
the best officers in the army refused to serve 
against the colonists. The Whig Party cham- 
pioned the colonial cause, believing it to be in 
reality the cause of all British subjects, but the 
king's ministers and Parliament were controlled 
by the Tory Party, which was determined to 
crush the liberties of America. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 

WHEN the skirmish at Lexington an- 
nounced the advent of war the colo- 
nists were not contending avowedly 
for Independence, but only for the recognition 
of certain rights which they claimed as British 
subjects. At the same time the struggle was 
bound to become a war for complete Inde- 
pendence, for the conviction was growing that 
In no other way could these rights be secured. 
This feeling was voiced by Patrick Henry, 
when In the course of an Impassioned speech in 
the Virginia House of Delegates he exclaimed: 
"We must fight! An appeal to the God of 
Hosts Is all that is left us." 

Early In May a few provincials led by Ethan 
Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the British 
fortresses of Crown Point and Ticonderoga on 
Lake Champlain. 

The Second Continental Congress met In Phila- 
delphia on May lo, 1775. It was composed of 

88 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 89 

about the same men as the first with the notable 
addition of a tall, red-haired young Radical 
from Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, who was des- 
tined to have a larger ultimate influence upon 
the development of the nation whose birth was 
near at hand than any other man of his time. 

This congress became by common consent the 
central government for the colonists, and re- 
mained so for six years. 

George Washington was chosen commander- 
in-chief of the Continental Army then gather- 
ing at Cambridge. Henceforward the burden of 
war rested mainly upon his shoulders. The dif- 
ficulties of his position were enormous, and in- 
creased as the war dragged on. To the skill, the 
patience, the wisdom, the tact, the unselfishness 
of Washington was due in predominating meas- 
ure the ultimate triumph of the American cause. 
He served through the entire war without pay, 
even devoting his private fortune to feeding and 
clothing his destitute soldiers when Congress 
failed to provide for them. 

The Combatants Compared. — The war began 
in New England, its decisive part was enacted 
in the Middle States, and it ended in the South. 
At no given time were there more than forty 
thousand British or thirty thousand Americans 



90 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

under arms, and it frequently happened that 
there was no fighting at all for long periods. 

Great Britain had immense wealth and could 
borrow money in any quarter. The Americans 
found it impossible to meet their financial needs. 
Congress had no authority to levy general 
taxes, and the colonial legislatures would not 
impose local taxes for a general purpose because 
of mutual jealousies. 

Great Britain had the largest navy in the 
world, while the Americans could muster only 
seventeen vessels. The British troops were thor- 
oughly disciplined and well equipped. As the 
war proceeded England hired thirty thousand 
auxiliaries from Germany and enlisted the Ind- 
ians.* 

* The Indians who allied themselves with the British 
made war in true Indian fashion, killing and scalping, re- 
specting neither age, infancy, nor womanhood. The British 
made little attempt to restrain them. A horde of Tories 
and Indians swept into the Wyoming Valley in Penn- 
sylvania in 1778 and massacred hundreds of the inhab- 
itants. The Americans also tried to enlist the Indians, 
but without much success. Those who did fight on the 
American side were kept within approximate bounds of 
civilized warfare. 

Most of the German hired soldiers were Hessians. Con- 
gress oflFered them grants of land if they would desert. Many 
of them accepted and settled in the Middle States. They 
were honest, well-meaning men who were inhumanly sold by 
their ruler for a price. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 91 

The American soldiers were undisciplined, 
poorly clothed, underpaid, and Inexperienced. 
Portraits of revolutionary heroes represent them 
as handsomely arrayed In uniforms of blue and 
buff. An official uniform of that description 
was adopted by Congress, but as each man had 
to furnish his own outfit, and the majority of 
the soldiers were poor, there were few uniforms 
worn except by officers of higher rank. The pri- 
vates and non-commissioned officers generally 
wore home-spun dyed with the juice of the but- 
ternut. 

The flags showed a great variety. At first 
the most common one was the "rattlesnake flag," 
bearing above the figure of a coiled serpent the 
motto, " Don't tread on me." 

The first official American flag was unfurled 
January i, 1776. It had thirteen red and white 
stripes with the British Union Jack In the cor- 
ner, signifying that the colonies were still a part 
of the British Empire. The raising of the 
" Union flag," as It was called, over the camp 
at Cambridge was at the moment regarded by 
the British commander-in-chief as a token of 
submission to the king and Parliament, because 
It displayed so prominently the crosses of St. 
George and St. Andrew. 



92 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The present national emblem was adopted by 
a resolution of Congress June 14, 1777. The 
British Jack was replaced by thirteen stars, rep- 
resenting the thirteen States, arranged in the 
form of a circle on a field of blue. 

The American officers, although deficient in 
military training, were natural commanders and 
rapidly developed technical knowledge with the 
opportunities of actual warfare. 

The most serious drawbacks to the American 
cause were the short terms for which the men 
enlisted in the army, and the prevalence of the 
spirit of jealousy which prevented true union 
of effort, and often imperilled success. Colonial 
governments, members of Congress, army offi- 
cers, and the soldiers and people of the different 
sections shared this latter fault to a greater 
or less extent. Only a few great-souled, far- 
sighted patriots like Washington, Franklin, and 
some others seemed to be entirely free from per- 
sonal envy and ambition. 

Battle of Bunker Hill.— Soon after the affair 
at Lexington and Concord, General Gage re- 
ceived reenforcements from England. The 
British held Boston, while the Americans occu- 
pied the hills above the town. 

On June 17 the British ships in the harbor 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 93 

and the land forces made a combined attack. 
Twice the British troops attempted to drive the 
Americans from their position, but were repulsed 
with heavy losses. Their brilliant red coats and 
white breeches offered a splendid target for the 
sure marksmanship of the Americans, whose 
short-range muskets loaded with slugs and mis- 
siles of various sorts did terrible damage. The 
third time the Americans, owing to the exhaus- 
tion of their ammunition, were obliged to re- 
treat. Each side lost about one-third of its num- 
bers, the British more than a thousand, the 
Americans over four hundred. The battle ac- 
complished nothing of military advantage for 
either side, but the Americans were greatly en- 
couraged. 

The Attempt to Take Quebec— The revolu- 
tionists hoped that the French inhabitants of 
Canada might be persuaded to join them in the 
struggle against Great Britain. While the main 
army was engaged around Boston two small 
expeditions were secretly despatched to Canada. 
One, under the command of General Richard 
Montgomery, moved by the Lake Champlain 
route and captured Montreal. The other, com- 
manded by Colonel Benedict Arnold, was sent 
through the Maine woods to Quebec, which was 



94 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

reached only after weeks of heroic effort and 
incredible suffering from cold and hunger. Men 
boiled their shoes and leather breeches for food, 
and hundreds fell exhausted along the line of 
march. 

On the night of December 31, 1775, the 
two armies joined in a fierce though futile 
attack on the walled city of Quebec. Mont- 
gomery was killed and Arnold badly wounded 
and taken prisoner. The Canadian project was 
the most daring enterprise of the war, but it 
failed to accomplish its purpose. Canada, 
which had no desire for additional liberties, re- 
mained loyal to the empire. 

The British Evacuate Boston.— General Wash- 
ington took command of the Continental Army 
July 3, 1775. On account of the poor equip- 
ment of his troops, the lack of discipline, and 
the short terms for which most of the men had 
enlisted, he was unable to commence active oper- 
ations against the enemy at once. 

In March, 1776, Washington seized and for- 
tified Dorchester Heights, an eminence over- 
looking Boston. General Sir William Howe, 
who had succeeded Gage as commander-in-chief 
of the British forces, finding the town no longer 
tenable, embarked his troops on transports and 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 95 

sailed to Halifax. Strange to say, he left a 
large quantity of cannon, muskets, powder, and 
bullets, practically making the Americans a pres- 
ent of his military stores. 

The Declaration of Independence. — Until the 
spring of 1776 the colonists were not avowedly 
contending for separation from the empire of 
Great Britain, but only for a larger measure of 
self-government. They wished to be free from 
the control of Parliament, but were willing to 
recognize the king, since his power alone was 
not great enough to Interfere seriously with their 
liberties. But when Congress again petitioned 
for a redress of grievances, and as before the 
petition was Ignored, all hope of reconciliation 
was abandoned and Congress determined to 
renounce British authority completely. 

The growing sentiment for Independence was 
in no small degree the work of the Englishman, 
Thomas Paine, who In a newspaper series of 
effective articles under the pen-name of '' Com- 
mon Sense " had converted a great number of 
his new compatriots to radical Ideals. 

Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, Introduced 
a resolution '^ that these United Colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and Indepen- 
dent states.'* The resolution was passed, though 



96 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

not unanimously. Thomas Jefferson drew up 
a Declaration of Independence, which was 
adopted on the evening of July 4, 1776, and 
signed August 2d. This Instrument proclaimed 
officially the birth of the United States. Every 
man who affixed his name to the Declaration of 
Independence was guilty of treason under Brit- 
ish law and liable to the penalty of death. The 
former colonies assumed the title of " States," 
and reorganized their governments on more pop- 
ular lines. 

The Declaration of Independence Is perhaps 
the most remarkable state-paper In history. Its 
language, vehement, earnest, eloquent. Is ad- 
mirably suited to its purposes. It Is Impossi- 
ble to read Its famlhar phrases or to scan Its 
immortal signatures without an answering thrill 
of sympathy across the sweep of years. It not 
only contains a clear statement of the Issues be- 
tween Great Britain and America, but it gives 
explicit and emphatic utterance to what was In 
1776 a novel political theory; namely, that the 
true object of government Is to serve the peo- 
ple, and that when their government fails to do 
this the people have a right to change or over- 
throw it. This idea had been advanced by a 
few writers in England, France, Holland, and 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 97 

Italy, but the Revolutionary patriots were the 
first to Invoke the principle of popular sover- 
eignty In a practical experiment of empire- 
building. 

Philosophically the document abounds with 
loose assumptions having no basis In fact nor 
promise of fulfilment in the possibilities of the 
human race. Indeed the academic simplicity 
with which some of its announcements are ha- 
bitually received and quoted has perverted great 
truths vital to all human Interest and social 
progress. In the mouth of the ranting dema- 
gogue or the brain of the Ignoramus the catch- 
phrases of this celebrated charter become preg- 
nant with potentialities of mischief and crime. 
Clothed in the flamboyant rhetoric of the agi- 
tator and hurled in frenzied appeal at Incarnate 
discontent, the dogma of equality breeds anarchy 
and ruin. 

But the Declaration of Independence Is not 
to be indiscriminately condemned as a mere 
philosophical vagary any more than It Is to be 
blindly venerated as a repository of political 
truth or an infallible assertion of eternal and 
axiomatic principles. Rather Is it to be judged 
by what It accomplished In firing the national 
heart and In developing the policy of a critical 



98 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and heroic time. It suggests the birthday of a 
great nation whose achievements are the admira- 
tion of history. 

American Reverses. — Declarations and mani- 
festoes, however powerful from the standpoint 
of agitation, are Impotent to work out the liber- 
ties of a free people. Revolutions are an appeal 
to force. Declarations are sealed with blood, 
and ratified, if at all, by the triumph of arms. 

The crucial stage of the struggle for Indepen- 
dence now began. The British, unable to make 
headway In New England, transferred their 
operations to the Middle States, which offered 
a better point of attack, and whose people In- 
cluded many loyalists. 

General Howe's plan was to take New York 
and to run a line of defence northward along 
the Hudson River and Lake Champlain to Can- 
ada, thus separating New England from the 
rest of the country. Anticipating Howe's pur- 
pose, Washington moved his forces from Boston 
to the protection of New York. The British 
outnumbered the Americans two to one. At the 
battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776) Wash- 
ington was defeated, and again at White Plains 
in October. Two forts on the Hudson fell into 
British hands. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 99 

Had Howe followed up his victories he 
might have crushed the patriot cause then 
and there. American enthusiasm began to 
wane under disaster, the army dwindled, and 
Congress was confronted with bankruptcy. 
Had It not been for the splendid services of 
Robert Morris, a wealthy merchant of Phila- 
delphia, the Revolution might have failed at 
this critical juncture for lack of financial sup- 
port. Pledging his personal credit he raised a 
loan for the Government sufficient to tide over 
the emergency. For a time the private fortunes 
of Washington and Morris were the only thing 
that kept an army In the field. 

Trenton and Princeton. — At this crisis occurred 
one of the brilliant exploits of the war. The 
town of Trenton, N. J., was a British outpost 
defended by one thousand Hessians. On Christ- 
mas night, 1776, Washington crossed the Dela- 
ware River from the Pennsylvania side, and, 
taking the Hessians by surprise, captured nearly 
the entire force. The British General, Corn- 
wallls, at once started In pursuit, but Washing- 
ton by a clever manoeuvre outwitted him, and 
the British, were defeated In a sharp encounter 
at Princeton. 

These victories partly retrieved the mis fort- 



100 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

unes of the previous summer and autumn, and 
revived the courage of the despondent Ameri- 
cans. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia and 
foremost general In Europe, declared that 
Washington's success at Trenton and Princeton 
would compare with the achievements of the 
most famous soldiers In the world's history. 

The British in Philadelphia.— In July, 1777, 
General Howe with eighteen thousand British 
troops embarked at New York and landed at 
Elkton, Md., with the intention of taking Phila- 
delphia. Washington hastened from New Jer- 
sey to defend the city, but was defeated at the 
battle of Brandywine. Quickly recovering, he 
again engaged the British at Germantown, but 
was compelled to retire by reason of a heavy 
fog which made the Americans mistake each 
other for the enemy. Congress fled to Lancas- 
ter, and afterward to York, where It remained 
for nine months. In October the British capt- 
ured two forts on the Delaware River and took 
Philadelphia, where they went into winter quar- 
ters, pleasantly entertained by the loyalists of 
the city. 

The Surrender of Burgoyne.— While Wash- 
ington was encountering reverses in Pennsyl- 
vania another division of the American Army 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR loi 

was winning laurels in New York. At the same 
time that Howe was preparing to take Phila- 
delphia General Burgoyne with ten thousand 
British, Tories, and Indians moved down from 
Canada toward New York with the object of 
cutting off New England from the Middle 
States. Had Howe gone north to cooperate 
with Burgoyne instead of going south to take 
Philadelphia the plan would have succeeded. 
It was the intention of the British Ministry that 
both generals should cooperate, and peremptory 
orders to this effect were addressed to Howe and 
Burgoyne. But Lord George Germain, in the 
pleasurable excitement of a holiday trip, forgot 
to despatch the instructions of the ministry until 
too late. His negligence proved the salvation 
of the American cause. 

At first Burgoyne met with little opposition, 
but when the Americans concentrated upon him 
his disasters began. Several detachments of the 
British Army were defeated in separate encoun- 
ters. The main army of six thousand, finding 
itself vanquished in battle, out of provisions, and 
hemmed In by the Americans, surrendered at 
Saratoga on October 17, 1777, to General 
Gates, the American commander. 

Gates was wholly inefficient. He had been 



102 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

appointed by Congress for purely political rea- 
sons. The success of the campaign was chiefly 
due to the skill and heroism of Benedict Arnold. 
Nevertheless Gates received all the credit, while 
the real victor was Ignored. 

The Conway Cabal. — One result of Gates's un- 
deserved prominence was a conspiracy known as 
the Conway Cabal, from the name of its author. 
General Thomas Conway, to remove Washing- 
ton from the command of the Continental Army 
and install Gates in his place. Several officers 
and members of Congress were implicated in 
the affair. The intrigue aroused great popu- 
lar indignation, and was promptly crushed by 
Washington. 

The Winter at Valley Forge. — When General 
Howe took Philadelphia the Americans went 
Into quarters at Valley Forge. The winter of 
1777-78 was unusually severe. The soldiers 
were half-naked and starving; many froze to 
death. In March the army was reduced by 
death, desertion, and the expiration of terms of 
enlistment to four thousand men. Howe with 
his twenty thousand British troops in the near-by 
city of Philadelphia could easily have destroyed 
the depleted American Army. 

Terrible as were these experiences, the win- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 103 

ter was fruitful of one great benefit. Baron 
Von Steuben, a distinguished Prussian general 
who had joined the patriots as a volunteer, de- 
voted himself to drilling the raw, undisciplined 
recruits in European tactics. When the winter 
passed and the army was ready to take the field 
Its efficiency was vastly increased. The good 
results of Steuben's training were seen through- 
out the remainder of the war. 

Several other eminent foreigners freely gave 
their aid to the American cause — Pulaski, Kos- 
ciusko, De Kalb, and most famous of all, the 
Marquis de Lafayette, a young French noble- 
man, who became a member of the military 
family of Washington in 1777 and rendered val- 
uable assistance as soldier and counsellor. 

Revolutionary Finance.— The reason why the 
soldiers were so destitute, not only at Valley 
Forge, but throughout the entire war, was not 
because food and clothing were scarce, but be- 
cause Congress had no money with which to buy 
them. When the colonies created the Continen- 
tal Congress they withheld from It the power to 
levy taxes, so necessary to carrying on successful 
war, fearing that such power would put the cen- 
tral government beyond their control. When 
Congress later requested the States to pay their 



104 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

proportionate shares of the general expense they 
refused. 

In order to provide funds Congress Issued 
paper money, which consists of written prom- 
ises to pay certain sums In cash on demand. 
Paper as a commodity, unlike the precious met- 
als, has no exchange value. Its circulating 
power Is conferred upon It by law. Paper money 
is purely promissory and representative, and is 
good only so long as people have confidence In 
the ability of the government to redeem Its 
pledges. Should that confidence be destroyed, 
the money which Is founded upon It becomes 
worthless. The danger which Inheres In the use 
of paper money Is liability to over-issue, which 
inevitably leads to depreciation. 

At first people accepted the " continental " 
money, as It was called. But so much more of 
it was issued than could ever be redeemed that 
the notes became valueless. Before long it took 
$600 In this currency to buy a pair of boots, and 
a bushel of oats cost $200. By 1781 one silver 
dollar was worth a thousand In paper. 

While Congress was flooding the country 
with worthless paper money, the individual 
States were doing the same thing within their 
borders. The financial evils of the Revolution- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 105 

ary period were felt for many years after the 
war closed. 

France to the Rescue. — After the Declaration 
of Independence Congress commissioned Benja- 
min Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to 
visit the court of France and negotiate a treaty 
of alliance with that country, and also with 
Spain, which was ruled by the same royal fam- 
ily. The French Government desired the hu- 
miliation of England, but knowing the weak 
condition of the United States hesitated to form 
an alliance, fearing that it would have to bear 
the brunt of the struggle. The surrender of 
Burgoyne convinced France that the United 
States had a chance to win, and a treaty of com- 
merce and alliance was signed early in 1778, by 
which the United States was recognized as an 
independent nation and French military and 
financial aid promised. 

The recognition of the United States by 
France was an obvious breach of neutrality. 
International law prescribes but two alternative 
conditions under which neutral nations may rec- 
ognize the independence of a community in re- 
volt against Its parent state — either separation 
must be actually and unqualifiedly achieved, or 
else ultimate success must be morally certain. 



io6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Now the outlook for the United States, despite 
the victory at Saratoga, was never less promis- 
ing than in 1778. Not only had independence 
not been achieved, but the probabilities were that 
it never would be. The credit of the Continen- 
tal Congress was hopelessly impaired, the army 
dwindling, and public support half-hearted and 
uncertain. 

Great Britain promptly declared war against 
France and offered the Americans all that they 
had ever demanded and more if they would 
return to the British fold. But it was too late 
for conciliation. The United States would ac- 
cept nothing short of absolute independence, 
which the French alliance now seemed to insure. 

The Government of France was despotic in 
type, and not at all in sympathy with the repub- 
lican ideals of England's disaffected subjects. 
Its motive in coming to the assistance of the 
United States was to square accounts for the 
loss of Canada, and other grievances of long 
standing. 

The highly intelligent and responsive French 
middle classes, on the contrary, were enthusiastic 
for the American cause per se^ since to them it 
represented that spirit of liberalism which was 
within a few years to achieve their own emanci- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 107 

patlon from an oppressive form of government 
and an outgrown social regime. 

But whatever the motive of her Government, 
or the legal quality of Its action, the timely aid 
of France saved the American cause when fail- 
ure seemed probable. The successful negotia- 
tion of the French alliance was due not so much 
to the efficiency of the commissioners as It was 
to the wisdom and diplomacy of Colonel John 
Laurens, a member of Washington's military 
staff, who had been despatched as special envoy 
to France. 

Naval Exploits. — The American Navy consisted 
mainly of " privateers," vessels owned by pri- 
vate parties and commissioned by Congress to 
destroy British commerce. After the French 
alliance was consummated Benjamin Franklin 
purchased five old ships which had been dis- 
carded by the French Government because prac- 
tically worthless, armed and manned them, and 
placed the fleet under the command of John Paul 
Jones of the United States Navy — as brilliant a 
commander as ever appeared In the history of 
naval warfare. On September 25, 1779, with a 
single ship he challenged two superior English 
frigates off the coast of Scotland. After one of 
the most desperate sea-fights In history, Jones 



io8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

sank one of the English vessels and captured the 
other. His own ship, the Bonhomme Richard^ 
was so badly damaged that she sank within a 
few hours after the victory. 

Jones received scant recognition from the 
Continental Congress. After the war he served 
as admiral In the Russian Navy, and died in 
Paris In 1799. His burial-place was recently 
discovered by General Horace Porter, Ameri- 
can Ambassador to France, who had the body 
brought to this country, where it was interred 
with ceremony at the United States Naval Acad- 
emy in June, 1905. 

The Battle of Monmouth.— When Sir Henry 
Clinton, who had been appointed to the com- 
mand of the British Army in place of General 
Howe, learned of the French alliance, he aban- 
doned Philadelphia to concentrate all the Brit- 
ish forces around New York before the French 
Army could arrive. Washington Immediately 
started in pursuit and overtook the British rear- 
guard at Monmouth Court-house In the village 
of Freehold, N. J. After a sharp but Indecisive 
battle (June 28, 1778) the British withdrew to 
New York, which they held until the end of the 
war. Washington took position In the high- 
lands of the Hudson, where he could best 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 109 

operate against Sir Henry Clinton in case the 
British commander should attempt a hostile 
movement. 

Monmouth was the last important battle in 
the Middle States; after 1778 the South was 
the seat of war. 

Stony Point. — ^One of the most heroic and 
spectacular exploits of the Revolution was the 
capture by General Anthony Wayne of Stony 
Point, a strong British fortress on the Hudson. 
On the night of July 15, 1779, Wayne with 
twelve hundred light infantry made a rapid and 
stealthy assault upon the works. To guard 
against betrayal, which a random shot would 
cause, the men were not permitted to load their 
muskets. Charging up the steep ascent at dead 
of night, the garrison was overpowered and the 
fortifications carried at the point of the bayonet. 
Stony Point proved to be of slight strategic 
value, and was soon abandoned. It is the 
audacity and heroism of its capture that makes 
the incident memorable. 

Before tracing the closing campaigns there 
remains to be noted an event which nearly 
proved the ruin of the American cause. 

The Treason of Arnold.— The most important 
fortress in the United States was West Point on 



no BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Hudson, commanded by Benedict Arnold. 
Embittered and disheartened by the injustice of 
his critics and the ingratitude of Congress in 
failing to recognize his splendid services and in 
promoting less deserving officers over him, 
Arnold concocted a plot to sell West Point to 
the enemy in exchange for $30,000 and a briga- 
dier-general's commission in the British Army. 
Major Andre, a young British officer, was made 
the medium of negotiation. As Andre was 
passing through the American lines he was capt- 
ured by three American soldiers, and the plans 
of West Point were found concealed in his stock- 
ings. The plot was discovered and West Point 
saved. Arnold narrowly escaped, but Andre, 
in accordance with the rules of war, was hung 
as a spy. 

The tragic fate of the captive was regretted 
by friend and foe alike. He was brave, mag- 
netic, and accomplished. No American soldier 
would act as his executioner. The man who did 
blackened his face, and his identity was never 
discovered. 

The War in the South.— As early as 1776 the 
British had attempted to gain a foothold in the 
South. A fleet attacked Charleston, but was re- 
pulsed by the American fire from Fort Moultrie 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR in 

In the harbor. Late In the year 1778 the Brit- 
ish, having failed In New England and the Mid- 
dle States, once more turned their attention to 
the South. Savannah and Charleston were 
taken, and by 1780 the British were masters of 
Georgia and South Carolina. 

Congress, thinking to match the British com- 
mander, Cornwallls, with a greater general sent 
Gates to the South. But he who had falsely 
won the credit for Burgoyne's surrender and 
had conspired to overthrow Washington proved 
utterly unable to meet the situation. After a 
crushing defeat at Camden he was recalled, and 
the command of the Southern Army Intrusted 
to Nathanael Greene. In a series of brilliant 
campaigns Greene won back all that had been 
lost. Cornwallls, completely outgeneralled, re- 
tired Into Virginia. 

The war In the Carolinas and Georgia was of 
a peculiarly bitter nature. There were many 
loyalists In those States, and the hatred between 
them and the patriots constantly expressed Itself 
in acts of wanton cruelty. 

The Southern campaigns developed some re- 
markable cavalry leaders. Colonel Henry Lee 
— " Light-horse Harry " — with his celebrated 
Legion was the right arm of Greene's army. 



112 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Marion and Sumter with their independent 
bands of rangers rendered indispensable service 
In surprising British detachments, destroying 
wagon-trains, and capturing supplies. They fre- 
quently lay concealed all day in the swamps, 
dashing out at night to surprise the British. 

Yorktown. — The summer of 178 1 arrived and 
found Washington a few miles north of New 
York planning an attack upon the city, which 
was held by Sir Henry Clinton. Greene was in 
South Carolina. Cornwallis was in Virginia 
engaged in a vain attempt to catch the youth- 
ful Lafayette, who with a small body of Amer- 
icans had been sent to Virginia to stop the 
depredations of the traitor Arnold. 

In August Washington learned that a French 
fleet and army would soon arrive in Chesapeake 
Bay. Leaving New York, he hastened to Vir- 
ginia to cooperate with the French against 
Cornwallis, who had established himself at 
Yorktown. The allied forces formed a half- 
circle about the town, and after a siege of three 
weeks, marked by much hard fighting, Corn- 
wallis surrendered on October 19, 178 1. This 
put an end to military operations, although arti- 
cles of peace were not signed until September 
3. 1783- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 113 

The Treaty of Peace. — Great Britain acknowl- 
edged the independence of the United States, 
whose boundaries were determined as follows: 
Canada on the north; the Mississippi River on 
the west; Florida, including the lower part of 
the present States of Mississippi and Louisiana, 
became the southern boundary. 

Owing to a lack of exact knowledge of Amer- 
ican geography on the part of the peace commis- 
sioners some of these boundaries were Indefinite 
at several points, which gave rise to many dis- 
putes In after years between Great Britain and 
the United States. 

The last place to be evacuated by the British 
was New York. On November 25 the rem- 
nant of their forces embarked on transports and 
the American troops entered the city amid the 
huzzas of the rejoicing multitude. The flag of 
England, which the retiring British had left fly- 
ing over the town in token of their unwilling 
departure, was torn away and the stars and 
stripes nailed to the staff. After an affectionate 
farewell to his officers, companions throughout 
eight distressing but heroic years, Washington 
went to Annapolis, where Congress was In ses- 
sion, and resigned his commission as commander- 
in-chief. The army was disbanded, and the 



114 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

American people were free to begin that perilous 
experiment in republican government which all 
the world was intently awaiting. 

Revolutionary Doctrine and Modem Practice. — 
So far as concerns the establishment and recog- 
nition of the theories of government for which 
the war was ostensibly undertaken, the Revolu- 
tionary struggle was barren of result. Great 
Britain has never admitted the correctness of 
the principles for which the Americans con- 
tended. Her colonies to-day, though enjoying 
practical immunity, are theoretically subject to 
whatever measure of control the British Parlia- 
ment in its wisdom or Its whim may see fit to ex- 
ercise over them. Nor have the United States 
in their individual or collective practice adhered 
closely to Revolutionary doctrine. 

The national Government has steadfastly de- 
nied home rule to its territories and dependen- 
cies, which are under far greater political limi- 
tations to-day than were the colonies in 1775. 
The latter were and the former are taxed by 
an external sovereign power upon whose irre- 
sponsible will their rights and liberties depend, 
and without any substantial semblance to a 
" right " of representation in the national coun- 
cils. True, the territories may, and most of 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 115 

them have become States, but there is no con- 
stitutional or other guarantee that they shall. It 
was the plain intention of the framers of the 
Constitution that the Republic should, if it 
wanted to, hold dependencies indefinitely and 
never allow them to become anything else. 

Colonial liberties in prerevolutlonary days 
possessed one highly effective safeguard which 
constituted an immense popular advantage over 
the territorial and colonial system of the United 
States. In the former case, governors and 
judges, though appointed by the crown, were 
dependent for their salaries upon the colonial 
assemblies, which could and often did use the 
power which that fact gave them to defeat the 
monarchical bias of royal officials. 

It is a fundamental principle of Anglo-Amer- 
ican jurisprudence that the judiciary shall be 
irremovable by the executive power. This guar- 
antee has always been withheld from the terri- 
tories, and there is no territorial judge who is not 
liable to removal at any time and for any cause 
by the President of the United States — which 
suggests the question. What becomes of the 
Inviolability of the courts? 

The United States Government has repeat- 
edly acquired by purchase and conquest alien 



ii6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

peoples, over whom It has ruled without the 
" consent of the governed." 

Nor has the nation recognized In Its domestic 
policy the right of revolution, expressly affirmed 
by the Declaration of Independence to be inher- 
ent In all communities, and upon which the col- 
onies justified their separation from the mother- 
country in 1776. For when eighty-five years 
later the seceding States of the South, which were 
" communities " In the full acceptation of the 
term as employed in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, resorted to the same ^' right," the 
United States Government Invaded their terri- 
tory, destroyed the property of their citizens, 
and put to violent death as many as possible of 
those Inhabitants who dared to resist. And 
when the United States Government had finally 
completed the subjugation of the seceding com- 
munities, it deprived them of statehood, denied 
them home rule and Constitutional protection, 
substituted Federal military jurisdiction for local 
government, and forced upon them the obnox- 
ious alternative of either accepting certain illegal 
limitations upon their subsequent political free- 
dom or remaining permanently in the status of 
conquered territory. 

It would seem, then, that governments do not. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 117 

as the Declaration of Independence broadly as- 
serts, " derive their just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed." Governments have no 
just powers in the accurate and philosophical 
meaning of the term. They have necessary 
powers, since the constant presence of recognized 
authority is essential to the Integrity and safety 
of the social structure, but these powers are 
usurped and in no sense delegated. 

Nor does there seem to be outside the sover- 
eign power any such thing as an " inalienable 
right," but all rights Inhere in the State by 
which they are, justly or unjustly, bestowed, 
withheld, or withdrawn at will. 



CHAPTER X 

FORMATION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERN- 
MENT 

AT the close of the Revolution the out- 
look for the United States was In some 
respects more discouraging than It had 
been at any time during the war. The country 
was prosperous, trade was Increasing, and edu- 
cation advancing; but Congress had lost the re- 
spect of the people, the States engaged In fre- 
quent quarrels with each other, and finances 
were more disordered than ever. The war had 
driven the States Into a temporary union, but 
now that they had achieved their Independence 
the tendency was toward separation. Had this 
tendency been followed the United States would 
probably have fallen an early prey to some Eu- 
ropean power or coalition. 

The Confederation.— In 1777 the Continental 
Congress, realizing its own weakness, had pro- 
posed a plan of union called the Articles of 
Confederation. Twelve States accepted, but 
118 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 119 

Maryland refused. As unanimous consent was 
required the plan failed of immediate adoption. 
In 178 1, when the war was practically ended, 
Maryland gave her consent to the Articles, and 
all the States then went into the Confederation. 

The new Government, while an improvement 
on the Continental Congress, exhibited the same 
serious defect — a lack of adequate authority to 
deal with matters of public concern. There 
were no national courts of law. Congress had 
a very limited power of taxation, and no con- 
trol whatever over foreign or interstate com- 
merce. No important legislation could be en- 
acted without the consent of nine States, which 
was often impossible to obtain on account of 
jealousies and clashing interests. The Individ- 
ual States not only trespassed upon each other, 
but they violated international law and the 
treaties with France and Holland, which Infrac- 
tions the general Government was powerless to 
prevent. 

The North-west Territory and the Ordinance of 
1787. — The Confederation accomplished one un- 
deniable benefit. The North-west Territory, 
lying between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers 
and the Great Lakes, was claimed In portions 
by New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 



120 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Virginia. For the sake of the public good these 
States agreed to surrender their several claims to 
the Confederation, and place the entire region 
under the control of Congress. In 1787 Con- 
gress passed an ordinance for the government 
of the North-west Territory, providing for its 
future division into States and forever excluding 
slavery. The region rapidly filled with settlers, 
and in time produced the States of Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

The Constitutional Convention. — Conditions 
steadily grew worse under the Confederation 
until at last Congress reluctantly Issued a call 
for a general convention to revise the Articles 
of Confederation. 

In May, 1787, fifty-five delegates from 
twelve States met in Independence Hall, Phila- 
delphia. Rhode Island alone refused to partici- 
pate. Her Government was determined to con- 
tinue the use of paper money, and feared that 
this policy would be forbidden by the Conven- 
tion. 

An abler body than the Constitutional Con- 
vention never assembled. Most of its members 
had been prominent in the Revolution, and 
some are among the best and wisest statesmen 
in our national history. George Washington 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 121 

was unanimously chosen to preside. Among 
the specially distinguished and useful repre- 
sentatives were Alexander Hamilton, James 
Madison, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, 
James Wilson, John Dickinson, and Gouverneur 
Morris. 

The Convention decided that the Articles of 
Confederation were not worth amending, that 
the only way to cure the evils of which every 
one was complaining was to organize an en- 
tirely new government. The delegates repre- 
sented extremes of opinion on all the vital sub- 
jects of debate, and final action was reached only 
by mutual concession. 

State or National Sovereignty? — The crucial 
point in the deliberations of the Convention was 
the question whether the new nation should be 
superior to the Individual States or whether each 
State should retain its supremacy, and delegate 
only a few of Its powers to the central Govern- 
ment. 

Alexander Hamilton and several others fa- 
vored a highly centralized and aristocratic gov- 
ernment. They knew that the American people 
would never tolerate a monarchy, but they 
wanted to adopt the essential features of mon- 
archy under the guise of republican forms. 



122 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Their opponents insisted that each State should 
surrender only minor powers to the national 
Government, reserving its most important ones. 

Slavery. — The Southern people held vast 
numbers of slaves. The people of the North 
had also owned slaves in earlier days, but as 
slavery had never been profitable in the North 
it had almost disappeared. Agriculture was the 
great mainstay of the South, and negro labor 
was best adapted to the requirements of the 
large plantations. In the North, where the cli- 
mate was cooler and occupations diversified, 
white men were almost universally employed. 

Some of the Northern members of the Con- 
stitutional Convention proposed to forbid sla- 
very altogether, but many of the Southern dele- 
gates declared that they would not come into 
the Union unless slavery should be both recog- 
nized and protected. The South also wanted 
slaves to be counted in making up the basis of 
representation in Congress. The North op- 
posed this demand, contending that since slaves 
were property and had no vote they should not 
be counted at all. At that time negroes were 
still being brought over from Africa. Most of 
the Southern States desired to stop the slave- 
trade at once — Maryland and Virginia had al- 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 123 

ready done so — but South Carolina, backed by 
the slave-trading interests of the North, ob- 
jected. 

Finally all the States agreed to three pro- 
visions : First, every slave should be counted as 
three-fifths of a white man in estimating pop- 
ulation; second, the African slave-trade could 
continue until 1808, when it must stop forever; 
third, runaway slaves must be arrested in any 
State where they might be found and returned 
to their owners. 

The Constitution. — The scheme of government 
adopted by the Convention was modelled large- 
ly after Anglo-Saxon precedent and the State 
constitutions. It was drafted by Gouverneur 
Morris, and provided for three coordinate 
branches — the legislative, the executive, and the 
judicial. 

The legislative power was vested in Congress, 
consisting of a Senate and House of Representa- 
tives. In order to guard the interests of small 
States against the encroachments of large ones, 
and at the same time to insure to the latter the 
preeminence which their superior importance 
warranted, senatorial representation was made 
equal, while representation in the Lower House 
was fixed on the basis of population. Senators 



124 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

were to be chosen by the State legislatures to 
serve for terms of six years and to represent 
their States as units. Members of the House 
were to be elected by popular vote for terms of 
two years. 

Congress was empowered to make laws with- 
in the limits of the Constitution, to levy taxes, 
coin and borrow money, raise and support 
armies, regulate commerce with foreign coun- 
tries and between the States, and in brief to do 
the necessary business of a national govern- 
ment. 

The authority of Congress has been greatly 
extended by the doctrine of " implied powers," 
which is that when the Constitution gave certain 
express powers to Congress it implied all inci- 
dental and instrumental powers which might be 
necessary to carry them out. This interpreta- 
tion originated with Hamilton, and was adopted 
by the Supreme Court, finding its strongest judi- 
cial exponent in John Marshall. 

Power to execute the laws was lodged in a 
President to be elected for a term of four years 
by electors chosen by the people of the States. 
Bills passed by Congress must be submitted to 
the President for his signature before they could 
become laws. Should the President veto a bill 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 125 

It might still become a law, provided Congress 
could pass It a second time with a two-thirds 
affirmative vote. Should the bill be neither 
signed nor vetoed It would become law at the 
expiration of ten days. It was to be the Presi- 
dent's duty to appoint Federal officers, such as 
ministers to foreign countries, judges of the Fed- 
eral courts and postmasters, and to make foreign 
treaties. 

Associated with the President was a Vice- 
president, whose duty was to preside over the 
Senate, and In case the President should die, 
resign, or be removed, to succeed to that office. 

The judicial branch, or power to Interpret 
the Federal laws, was represented by one Su- 
preme Court and by several undefined courts, 
which Congress was given authority to establish 
as It should see fit. 

Ratification of the Constitution. — The Impor- 
tant question now was whether the States would 
accept the plan of government which the Con- 
vention had devised. Fortunately It required 
the consent of only nine States. There was con- 
siderable opposition, chiefly In New York, Mas- 
sachusetts, and Virginia, based upon the fear 
that the powers with which It was proposed to 
endow the Federal Government would be used 



126 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to destroy the liberties of the people and the in- 
dependence of the States. 

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and 
John Jay wrote a series of able essays under 
the title of " The Federalist," which were 
printed in a New York newspaper and scattered 
broadcast, explaining the plan and showing its 
advantages. John Dickinson rendered a simi- 
lar service through a number of public letters 
over the signature of " Fabius." 

One by one the States swung into line, Dela- 
ware and Pennsylvania leading, until the con- 
sent of the necessary nine had been secured, and 
by June, 1788, the Constitution was an assured 
thing. New York came in eleventh by a major- 
ity of one vote. Rhode Island held off until 
1789, and North Carolina until 1790. 

New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia rati- 
fied the Constitution with the express under- 
standing that they could leave the Union when- 
ever they desired. This fact had an impor- 
tant bearing on the question of succession in 
i860. 

Amendments. — In order to remove the popu- 
lar objection that the Constitution did not as- 
sure the liberties of the people and the rights 
of the States, ten amendments were added in 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 127 

1 79 1 at the suggestion of Jefferson, who was 
not present at the deliberations of the Conven- 
tion, having succeeded Benjamin Frankhn as 
Minister to France. They guarantee among 
other things freedom of religion, of speech, and 
of the press, trial by jury, and forbid the estab- 
lishment of any national church. 

These ten amendments are called the " Bill of 
Rights." They are restrictions upon the power 
of the Federal Government only, and do not 
apply to the States. The Bill of Rights was 
copied from similar provisions in such State con- 
stitutions as had borrowed them from the fa- 
mous Bill of Rights passed by Parliament to 
protect the rights of Englishmen In 1688. 

The tenth amendment contains the rule for 
determining all questions of respective author- 
ity which may arise between a State and the 
Federal Government. The latter can exercise 
only those powers which the Constitution ex- 
pressly confers, while the State governments 
possess all the powers which the Constitution 
does not expressly take from them. 

A Monarchical Type of Executive. — The Con- 
stitution of the United States was not the spon- 
taneous invention of its celebrated framers, but 
the ripened fruit of centuries of political devel- 



128 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

opment. It rests upon governmental principles 
tried and proved in the history of England and 
by the experience of her American colonies in 
the days of British sovereignty. 

It may be observed, however, as a singular 
fact — in view of the American antipathy to 
monarchy engendered by colonial experiences 
with George III — that the President should 
have been given Independent executive powers 
of so dictatorial a type — powers far greater 
than those of the King of England, against 
whose personal misrule the patriots rebelled. 
There is no ruler in Europe, with the ex- 
ceptions of the Czar, the Sultan, and the Kaiser, 
to whom the title of Imperator may be so 
aptly applied as to the President of the United 
States. He cannot legislate, but he can annul 
legislation by not executing the laws, while 
his general veto power constitutes a real and 
vital superiority. The right of appointment 
and removal Is In Itself a prerogative of magni- 
tude. The President is commander-in-chief of 
the military and naval forces of the United 
States with every protection to secrecy of Intent 
and action, and in time of war Is censor of the 
press. In short, the possibilities for the exercise 
of personal tyranny Inherent In this office are 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 129 

Immeasurable. And not only do the elastic 
powers of the American Executive In many re- 
spects approximate dictatorship, but they are 
invading the legislative sphere of Congress. 

The First Presidential Election.— That George 
Washington would be the first President of the 
United States was certain. The electors met 
early In February, 1789, and cast their votes 
unanimously for Washington. John Adams, 
one of the most prominent of the civil leaders 
of the Revolution, who had served his country 
as Minister to France, Holland, and Great Brit- 
ain, was chosen Vice-president. They were In- 
augurated on April 30th In the city of New 
York, which was the temporary capital of the 
nation. 

Washington was socially and by tempera- 
ment an aristocrat, fond of titles and ceremony, 
which he believed properly belonged to the dig- 
nity of office. He rode In a coach drawn by six 
white horses with uniformed footmen. At pub- 
lic receptions he wore a dress-sword and stood 
on a dais. On such occasions he never shook 
hands, but bowed to his guests. Washington 
and Adams were reelected in 1792. 

During these eight years some notable events 
occurred, and certain tendencies appeared which 



130 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

gave direction to political development for many 
years. 

The Cabinet. — One of the first acts of Con- 
gress was to create four executive departments, 
which have since been increased to nine. They 
were the departments of State, Treasury, War, 
and the office of Attorney-general. 

Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson Sec- 
retary of State, and Alexander Hamilton Secre- 
tary of the Treasury; Henry Knox, who had 
been chief of artillery during the Revolution, 
was made Secretary of War, and Edmund Ran- 
dolph Attorney-general. 

There is nothing to indicate that these offi- 
cials met together until 1791. Afterward they 
assembled occasionally, but not at regular times, 
as is the case now. The term " Cabinet " did 
not come into vogue until 1800. 

Financial Reform. — The most imperative duty 
of the new Government was to correct the finan- 
cial evils inherited from the Revolutionary 
period. When Hamilton took office the public 
debt amounted to $54,000,000, representing the 
money borrowed from France and Holland and 
from our own people by the Continental Con- 
gress during the Revolution with accrued inter- 
est. The State governments had also borrowed 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 131 

large amounts, of which over $21,000,000 still 
remained unpaid. 

Hamilton proposed that the Federal Gov- 
ernment assume the total debt of $75,000,000. 
There was strong objection to having the Fed- 
eral Government pay the State debts, partly 
because some States had already discharged 
the greater portion of their own obligations 
and did not want to be burdened with the 
debts of the rest, but chiefly because the trans- 
action Implied the sovereignty of the Fed- 
eral Government, which the State Rights men 
were unwilling to admit. The bulk of opposi- 
tion came from the South. Finally, through a 
compact between Hamilton and Jefferson, the 
Southern States agreed to support Hamilton's 
plan on condition that the national capital should 
be located In Southern territory. To satisfy 
Pennsylvania the capital was taken away from 
New York and given to Philadelphia for ten 
years, after which It was to go to the District 
of Columbia.* 

Hamilton persuaded Congress to lay a light 

* The city of Washington is situated on a tract covering a 
territory of a little less than ten square miles which Mary- 
land ceded to the Federal Government for the site of the 
national capital. The District of Columbia is governed by 
Congress. 



132 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Import tax on tea and coffee and a heavier tax 
on such Imported articles as wines, brandies, 
broadcloths, and velvets, which were purchased 
only by the well-to-do. In this way the Gov- 
ernment could get sufficient revenue without 
overtaxing the people. 

Another of Hamilton's financial achievements 
was the establishment of a United States Bank 
In Philadelphia, with branches In New York, 
Boston, Baltimore, and Charleston. The bank 
was chartered for twenty years, and was to act 
as financial agent for the Government. 

The Rise of Political Parties. — During the 
public discussions of the Constitution those who 
had favored its adoption were known as Feder- 
alists, while those who had opposed It because 
they believed in the supremacy of the States 
were called Anti-Federalists. 

When the Constitution was ratified the Anti- 
Federalists of course accepted It, but retained 
their principles unchanged, adopting the party 
name of Democratic-Republican, and continuing 
to be the champions of the States, intent upon 
seeing that the Federal Government did not 
overstep the limitations which the Constitution 
had placed upon It. They were called Demo- 
crats or Republicans, and were led by Thomas 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 133 

Jefferson, not so practical a statesman as Ham- 
ilton, but sincere, liberal, learned, and patri- 
otic. Associated with Jefferson In party lead- 
ership were Aaron Burr and George Clinton, 
of New York, and Albert Gallatin, of Penn- 
sylvania. 

The Democratic - Republican Party was 
strongest in New York, Pennsylvania, and 
the South. It was composed of the agricult- 
ural class, ambitious young men, and the rest- 
less and progressive element generally. They 
believed in the reign of the common people, 
hated monarchy and class rule, and thought that 
the Government ought to help France against 
England and the other royal and aristocratic 
countries which were trying to crush the efforts 
of the French people to establish a republic 
in place of the monarchy they had over- 
thrown. 

The Democrats, to show their sympathy for 
the French, wore cockades, the official emblem 
of the French Revolutionists, and formed po- 
litical clubs to which they gave French names. 
But when the French minister. Genet, came over 
to enlist the aid of the United States In a war 
against England his purpose was opposed by 
Jefferson, who believed with Washington that 



134 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN* HISTORY 

It was best to avoid foreign entanglements. 
Genet behaved so discourteously that Washing- 
ton demanded his recall. The French Revolu- 
tion was rapidly degenerating into anarchy, and 
that fact, together with the undiplomatic con- 
duct of Genet, alienated American sympathy 
from the French cause. 

It may at first sight appear remarkable that a 
party whose avowed aim was to level social in- 
equalities, should have taken root and flourished 
In a section of the country which has from colon- 
ial days been associated with the aristocratic 
Ideal and principle of government. The 
strength of the Jeffersonian Party, however, did 
not lie with the wealthy planters who occupied 
the choice lands along the lower river courses 
and the coasts, but with the far more numerous 
small farmers of the Interior. Within a few 
years the Southern aristocrats were impelled by 
their peculiar interests generally to affiliate with 
the Democratic Party, but at the start there 
were more Federalists among them than Demo- 
crats. 

The Federalist Party was led by Alexander 
Hamilton, John Adams, John Jay, Gouver- 
neur Morris, and James Madison, who later be- 
came a Democrat. Its greatest strength was 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 135 

In New England, where It was composed of the 
wealthy and cultured — the lawyers, ministers, 
doctors, teachers, and merchants. It was also 
liberally represented among the patricians of 
the South. 

The Federalists had little confidence In the 
virtue and Intelligence of the masses. They be- 
lieved that the National Government ought to 
have strong powers, and that only citizens who 
owned property and were educated should be 
allowed to vote. 

Trouble with the Indians. — The coming of 
white settlers from the Eastern States Into the 
North-west Territory was followed by Indian 
wars. Two armies which were sent against the 
Indians of the North-west were almost anni- 
hilated. In 1793 Washington Intrusted an ex- 
pedition to General Anthony Wayne, who had 
been one of the most brilliant and successful 
generals of the Revolution, and next to Wash- 
ington the most popular man In the army. Gen- 
eral Wayne defeated the Indians so completely 
that they surrendered all claims to southern and 
eastern Ohio. 

The American People in 1800. — The census of 
1800 announced a population of nearly five 
and a half millions. Farmers were the most 



136 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

numerous class. They were prosperous and 
economically independent, producing on their 
farms everything required for their own sub- 
sistence, even clothing, which was made from 
domestic wool, spun and cut into garments by 
their wives and daughters. 

Merchants were a wealthy and Influential 
portion of the community. Manufactures had 
not yet developed to any great extent. 

Ship-building was a prominent Industry and 
commerce was rapidly Increasing. All Europe 
was engaged In war, and the carrying trade, 
which formerly belonged to England, France, 
and Holland, had fallen to American vessels. 

The Invention of the cotton-gin in 1794 by 
Eli Whitney, of Connecticut, had made cotton- 
raising a most profitable form of agriculture, 
and the South was growing rich. 

The interior of the country was still a wilder- 
ness, but in swift and steady process of reclama- 
tion by the hardy pioneer. The rough and 
ready character of the West made it a nursery 
of democracy. There every man stood upon 
his own merit, or fell because of his lack of It. 
The new Western and South-western States that 
were admitted to the Union hedged the suffrage 
with no property or religious tests. 



THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 137 

Horseback, stage-coach, and sailing packet 
were still the only modes of travel, but roads 
were multiplying and canals began to make 
their appearance, built by private capital or by 
State direction. 



CHAPTER XI 

EARLY ACHIEVEMENT AND NATIONAL 
EXPANSION 

WASHINGTON could have been 
unanimously reelected for a third 
term, and was not in principle op- 
posed to it, but being weary of public life, in 
which he had engaged for forty years, he pre- 
ferred to return to his estate and resume the life 
of a Southern planter. His few remaining years 
were spent in tranquil retirement at Mount Ver- 
non, where he died in 1799, mourned by his 
country and venerated by the civilized world. 

The election of 1796 resulted in the choice 
of John Adams for President and Thomas Jef- 
ferson for Vice-president. Adams was a man 
of highest honor, but cold in manner, austere, 
and aristocratic, hence unpopular, on which ac- 
count he was not reelected. 

John Adams was the first and last strictly 
Federalist President. Washington had never 
been a partisan. Though sympathizing with 

138 



EARLY ACHIEVEMENT 139 

the general alms and policies of the Federalists, 
he had selected his advisers from both parties. 

The Adams administration is memorable for 
the decline of the Federalist Party, which re- 
sulted to some extent from its foreign policy, 
though principally from stubborn resistance to 
the growing spirit of the age. 

The Jay Treaty. — In 1796 the Federalist Sen- 
ate had ratified a treaty with Great Britain 
which was not advantageous to the United 
States, although it was then the best attainable, 
and which humiliated the national pride. The 
treaty also angered France, which was then at 
war with Great Britain, because It gave privi- 
leges to the latter country which were withheld 
from France. The French Government retal- 
iated by ordering Its cruisers to seize American 
vessels, justifying Its course by declaring that 
the United States was assisting Great Britain, 
which was not true. The American Navy made 
two captures of French war-ships. For a time 
war between the United States and Its old Revo- 
lutionary ally was imminent, but It was averted 
by the diplomacy of President Adams and of 
Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France. 

The Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798. — In the 
meantime the Federalist Congress, thinking that 



HO BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

It would be well to strengthen the Government 
In case of war, passed the Allen Act, empow- 
ering the President to expel from the country 
without trial any foreigners (meaning French- 
men) whose presence he might regard as dan- 
gerous to the peace and safety of the United 
States. 

The Sedition Act made It a crime for any one 
to speak or write against the Government, and 
was directed against the Democratic Party, 
which by Its criticisms had exasperated the Fed- 
eralists. 

These laws aroused great opposition, espe- 
cially In the Southj where the Democrats were 
strong. 

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. — The 
legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky at once 
passed resolutions declaring the Alien and Sedi- 
tion Acts unconstitutional and calling upon the 
other States to resist them. The Virginia reso- 
lutions were written by James Madison, those 
of Kentucky by Jefferson. 

These resolutions are Important because they 
contain the first official assertion of the doctrine 
of "nullification"; that is, the doctrine that a 
State may declare null and void a national law 
of which it disapproves. 



EARLY ACHIEVEMENT 141 

The rest of the States declined to follow the 
lead of Virginia and Kentucky, asserting that 
only the United States Supreme Court had the 
right to pass upon the constitutionality of Fed- 
eral laws. 

The Alien and Sedition Acts gave the Feder- 
alist Party Its death-blow, though it lingered in 
a struggling condition for several years, and its 
principles continued to be applied by Chief- 
justice Marshall in the judiciary department. 

The Election of Jefferson. — With the inaugu- 
ration of Thomas Jefferson as President of the 
United States in 1801 the Democratic Party 
came Into full control of national affairs, which 
It was to hold with but two brief interruptions 
for sixty years. The transfer of political power 
from the aristocratic to the popular party was 
accompanied by a greater simplicity in official 
habit and ceremony, for Jefferson, although 
wealthy, was a man of plain tastes. 

The Barbary War. — The United States enjoyed 
a flourishing trade with the countries bordering 
on the Mediterranean Sea. On the southern 
shore lay the Barbary States, a group compris- 
ing Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli. 

The people of the Barbary States were Mo- 
hammedans in religion and pirates by occupation. 



142 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

It was their practice to He In wait In their har- 
bors for foreign merchantmen, and then suddenly 
dart out, rob the vessels, and sell the crews into 
slavery. All Europe paid tribute to insure the 
protection of its commerce. Our Government 
did likewise for a time, but soon grew tired of 
it and determined to fight. War began In 
1 80 1, when an American fleet bombarded 
Tripoli. Other nations followed the American 
example, and the Barbary terror was forever 
destroyed. 

This achievement greatly increased the pres- 
tige of the United States abroad. It was the 
first triumph of our national navy, and It notified 
Europe that there was a new and vigorous power 
this side of the Atlantic. Pope Pius VII said: 
" The Americans have done more for Christen- 
dom against the pirates of Africa than all the 
powers of Europe united." 

The Louisiana Purchase and the Expedition of 
Lewis and Clark. — President Jefferson and other 
far-sighted men realized that the political and 
commercial Interests of the United States de- 
manded full American control of the Mississippi 
River and the city of New Orleans, as the prod- 
uce of nearly half the country must reach the 
market by the Mississippi route. In 1800 Spain 



EARLY ACHIEVEMENT 143 

ceded to France the territory known as Louisi- 
ana.* 

Jefferson at once planned to purchase New 
Orleans. Fortunately Napoleon Bonaparte 
needed money to prosecute his mammoth wars 
against Europe. He was willing to sell not only 
New Orleans, but all Louisiana, because of the 
impossibility of defending it against Great Brit- 
ain, with which nation he was about to go to 
war. He also knew that by selling Louisiana 
to the United States he would gain the good-will 
of this country, and at the same time raise up a 
powerful future rival for his enemy. Great Brit- 
ain. The north-western boundary of this im- 
mense tract had never been clearly defined, and 
Napoleon believed that the United States 
would sooner or later come into collision with 
Great Britain, whose Canadian possessions 
touched the Louisiana territory. This is pre- 
cisely what happened, although not so soon 
as Napoleon expected. The two nations al- 

* Louisiana was the name given to the French possessions 
west of the Mississippi River. At the close of the French and 
Indian War it was ceded to Spain, which kept it until 1800, 
when it again became the property of France. It comprised 
most of the territory now included in the States of Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South 
Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, 
Indian Territory, and Oklahoma. 



144 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

most went to war over the boundary of Oregon 
in 1846. 

The United States paid Napoleon $15,000,- 
000, and in 1803 Louisiana became a territory 
of the United States. This transaction is one 
of the most momentous events in American his- 
tory. It doubled our national area, and gave 
us control of the Gulf of Mexico. It also pre- 
vented those disputes or wars which would prob- 
ably have arisen had Spain or France continued 
to own neighboring territory, and led in course 
of time to the extension of our boundary to the 
Pacific. 

The new country attracted large numbers of 
immigrants from the States. The invention of 
the steamboat and locomotive a few years later 
was followed by a great increase in the wealth 
and commercial importance of the Far West. 

In the spring of 1804 President Jefferson 
sent out Meriwether Lewis and William Clark 
to explore the Louisiana territory and the coun- 
try beyond as far as the Pacific Ocean. They 
were gone two and a half years. In consequence 
of their discoveries the United States laid claim 
to the Oregon country, a fine territory including 
the present States of Oregon, Washington, and 
Idaho, but it was many years before the Ameri- 



EARLY ACHIEVEMENT 145 

can claim was conceded by Great Britain, and 
then only after a compromise. 

The Hamilton-Burr Duel, 1804. — The Vice- 
president of the United States was Aaron Burr, 
one of the most gifted men In American his- 
tory, but extremely ambitious; a man who never 
spoke 111 of his most embittered and inveterate 
foe ; who never denied the malodorous practices 
with which he was constantly charged, nor retali- 
ated In kind against his accusers. Burr was the 
shrewdest politician of his day, and was hated 
and feared by Hamilton and Jefferson alike, for 
neither of them could match his skill, and both 
distrusted his patriotism. 

In the election of 1800 Jefferson and Burr 
had polled the same number of votes for Presi- 
dent. The Constitution provided that In case 
of a tie the decision should lie with the House 
of Representatives. The House was made up 
largely of Federalists, whom Hamilton Induced 
to oppose Burr, with the result that Jefferson 
was declared President.* 

* Under the original method of election there was no 
balloting for Vice-president. The electors voted for two 
candidates for President, and the one who received next 
to the highest number of votes was declared Vice-presi- 
dent. This method had worked well at first, but its 
vital defect appeared in the election of Adams and 



146 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

In 1804 Burr was nominated for Governor of 
New York, but owing to the hostile influence 
of Hamilton he was defeated. On account of 
this and other grievances Burr challenged Ham- 
ilton to a duel and killed him. He was in- 
dicted for murder, but escaped arrest by flight. 
The man whose life he had taken was one of 
the greatest statesmen in the history of the 
world. Guizot, the French statesman and his- 
torian, says of Hamilton: "He must ever be 
classed among the men who have best under- 
stood the vital principles and elemental condi- 
tions of government; there is not in the Consti- 
tution of the United States an element of order 
or force or duration which he did not power- 
fully contribute to secure.'' 

As for Aaron Burr, he stands a discredited 
figure In the galaxy of patriots. No man in 
American history was ever more bitterly as- 
sailed, and none ever preserved in the face of 

Jefferson. As they were members of hostile parties it 
necessarily meant a lack of harmony in the executive 
branch of the Government, and a political change in the 
event of succession. To remove these disadvantages as 
w^ell as to avoid a repetition of the Jefferson-Burr incident, 
a Constitutional amendment w^as passed in 1804 adopting 
the present method. The electors now vote for President 
and Vice-president separately, and the same political party 
gets both offices. 



EARLY ACHIEVEMENT 147 

persecution and abuse a demeanor more serene 
or a self-control more perfect. That he was a 
model of moral excellence In his private con- 
duct or a type of the loftiest statesmanship is 
not to be affirmed. But If he wore not with virt- 
uous pride the " white flower of a blameless 
life," he was at least a brave, defiant soul, who 
bore with philosophic calm the life-long storm 
of scurrilous attack and begged no quarter of 
his legion foes. 

Fulton's Steamboat. — The civilized world was 
beginning to realize the possibilities of steam 
as a motive power. Several attempts had been 
made both in Europe and America to adapt it 
to navigation. In 1786 John Fitch experi- 
mented successfully with a steamboat on the 
Delaware, and James Rumsey in the same year 
put a similar craft on the Potomac. These at- 
tempts, however, failed to take hold of the pop- 
ular imagination; it remained for Robert Ful- 
ton to awaken the interest of the general public 
in steam navigation. In 1807 Fulton ran the 
Clermont from New York to Albany against a 
heavy current, attaining a speed of four miles 
an hour. 

The invention of the steamboat was one of 
the great achievements of the nineteenth cen- 



148 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

tury. It became a powerful factor in opening up 
the West, distributing population and increas- 
ing commerce by making transportation both 
easier and cheaper. 



i 



CHAPTER XII 

THE WAR OF 1812 

DURING Jefferson's second administra- 
tion the United States suffered great 
annoyance from England and France, 
which were then at war with each other. In 
order to destroy England's commerce Na- 
poleon proclaimed a blockade of British ports. 
Great Britain retaliated with the Orders In 
Council, forbidding all trade not only with 
France, but with those countries which were 
under French control. As every country In con- 
tinental Europe except Russia was ruled by 
France the Orders in Council practically closed 
commerce between the United States and Eu- 
rope. This was a heavy blow to American in- 
terests, for the United States had acquired the 
greater part of the carrying trade of the civ- 
ilized world. 

England needed more sailors to man her 
ships and to enforce her blockades. In order 
to get them she resorted to " Impressment." 

149 



150 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Her courts declared, " once an Englishman al- 
ways an Englishman," and they refused to rec- 
ognize American naturalization laws or to admit 
that the United States could by any process make 
an American citizen out of a native-born Briton. 
The American Navy and merchant marine con- 
tained many Englishmen; some had deserted 
from the British Navy, and others had been nat- 
uralized under United States laws. The officers 
of Great Britain boarded American vessels, 
seized these men and ''impressed" them into 
the British service. Very often, since it was not 
always easy to distinguish between an American 
and an Englishman, they took x'\merican sailors 
and made them fight in British ships. 

The Embargo. — In June, 1807, the British 
frigate Leopard stopped the American frigate 
Chesapeake and demanded the delivery of al- 
leged deserters. The captain of the Chesapeake 
refused to give them up, whereupon the Leopard 
opened fire. The Chesapeake being quite unpre- 
pared for action was compelled to surrender. 

This outrage upon an armed vessel of the 
United States should have been followed by an 
immediate declaration of hostilities, but Jeffer- 
son was a man of peace, and hoped to bring 
Great Britain to terms by breaking off trade re- 



THE WAR OF 1812 151 

latlons Instead of resorting to force. When 
Congress met In December, 1807, It passed an 
embargo act forbidding American vessels to sail 
to European ports and European vessels to land 
cargoes In American ports. The object was to 
Injure French, and especially British, trade. But 
Europe did not need American trade nearly so 
much as the United States needed the trade of 
Europe. 

The Immediate effect of the Embargo was 
to produce general discontent at home. Prices 
dropped because there was no market for goods. 
American vessels rotted at the wharves, sailors 
lost employment, farmers could not sell their 
produce, merchants became bankrupt, and grass 
grew In the streets of the seaport towns. 

But the Embargo had one beneficial result. 
The restrictions Imposed upon commerce forced 
the American people to make for themselves 
many articles for which they had hitherto de- 
pended upon Europe. In this way mills and 
factories sprang up In New England. 

The Presidency of James Madison, 1809-17. — 
Like Washington, Jefferson could have had a 
third term, but declined, although for a differ- 
ent reason; because he believed that for one man 
to serve longer than eight years would set a 



152 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

precedent which might have a monarchical 
tendency. 

Notwithstanding the unpopularity of the Em- 
bargo, which had been passed by a Democratic 
Congress, that party carried the election of 
1808, and James Madison was chosen Presi- 
dent. He had been a Federalist, and is some- 
times called the " Father of the Constitution," 
because of his prominent part in framing that 
instrument and in securing its adoption, but 
later he joined the party of Jefferson. 

In the spring of 1809 the Embargo was re- 
pealed, and the Non-Intercourse Act passed in 
its stead, which permitted trade with the rest of 
Europe, but forbade it with Great Britain. 

Three years passed, during which Great Brit- 
ain continued to seize American vessels and im- 
press American sailors. Since 1803 more than 
nine hundred American vessels had been seized 
and several thousand American seamen forced 
into the British naval service. The Democratic- 
Republican Party demanded war. Led by such 
men as Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, and 
Henry Clay, of Kentucky, it began to see the 
necessity for a stronger national Government 
than it had at first approved. 

The Battle of Tippecanoe.— While the United 



THE WAR OF 1812 153 

States was on the verge of war with England an- 
other decisive victory was won over the Indians 
in the West. 

The white settlers were steadily pushing the 
red men toward the setting sun. In 1 809 Gen- 
eral William Henry Harrison, Governor of the 
Territory of Indiana, purchased land from the 
Indians for the United States Government. 
Two chiefs, Tecumseh and his brother the 
*' Prophet,^' believed the purchase had been un- 
fairly made and organized the tribes for a con- 
certed effort to expel the whites. 

Tecumseh, although a barbarian, was a re- 
former and a man of high principle. He wanted 
to suppress the sale of the white man's liquor, 
which was making a race of drunkards out of 
his people. 

In the autumn of 181 1 General Harrison 
marched into the Indian country. Tecumseh 
was in the South, working up an alliance with 
the Creek Indians of Alabama. The Prophet 
attempted to surprise the Americans by a sudden 
attack, but Harrison was on his guard, and the 
Indians were defeated with great loss at the 
battle of Tippecanoe. 

War Declared. — On June 18, 18 12, Congress 
declared war against Great Britain. In his mes- 



154 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

sage to Congress the President specified the fol- 
lowing principal causes of grievance: First, the 
seizure of American vessels and the Impress- 
ment of American citizens Into the British Navy; 
second, the destructive effect upon American 
commerce of British blockades; third, the com- 
mon belief that the British fur-traders and gar- 
risons on the Canadian frontier had Incited the 
recent Indian outbreak under Tecumseh — which 
is now known to be an error. 

The War of 1812 Is often called the Second 
War for Independence. The Revolution had 
made us free on land, the War of 18 12 was to 
make us free on the ocean; the Revolution had 
given us political Independence, the War of 1 8 1 2 
was to give us commercial Independence. 

Military Disaster. — The first military event 
of the war proved disastrous to American arms. 
General Hull was commander of the forces In 
the West. He started to Invade Canada, but 
becoming alarmed turned back to Detroit. 
Soon a British force appeared, and without 
even attempting a defence General Hull sur- 
rendered, thus permitting all Michigan to fall 
into the hands of the enemy. He was tried by 
a court-martial for cowardice and sentenced to 
be shot, but the President Interfered to save his 



THE WAR OF 1812 155 

life on account of his age and his honorable rec- 
ord In the Revolution. 

Naval Victories. — If failure followed the 
commencement of hostilities on land, on sea 
the war opened with brilliant success. The 
American Navy numbered but twenty ships 
and a few gun-boats, while the British Navy 
comprised a thousand vessels. On August 19, 
1 8 12, a few days after General Hull sur- 
rendered Detroit, his nephew, Captain Isaac 
Hull, commanding the Constitution, fought the 
British frigate Guerriere, and captured her In less 
than thirty minutes. It was the first victory of 
the war, and the people gave the Constitution 
the affectionate name of '' Old Ironsides.'* 
In the same year the Americans won three other 
memorable sea - victories. The Constitution 
added the Ja'va to her prize record, the Wasp 
captured the Frolic, and the United States took 
the Macedonian. Before the war ended the 
American Navy had captured twenty-five hun- 
dred British prizes. 

The reason for this astonishing success against 
the greatest navy In the world Is to be found In 
the superiority of American gunners and sailors, 
which more than compensated for the lack of 
ships. 



156 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

A large part of the northern frontier was 
occupied by the Great Lakes, of which it was 
highly desirable to get control. Captain Oliver 
Hazard Perry built a fleet on Lake Erie to 
operate against the British. On the morning of 
September 13, 18 13, he saw the British ships 
approaching. Captain Perry advanced to meet 
them, and in less than two hours, after one of 
the hardest fought naval battles in history, 
gained a complete victory. He then sent to 
General Harrison, who had succeeded General 
Hull in the command of the army of the West, 
this famous despatch: " We have met the enemy 
and they are ours." 

A similar victory was gained on Lake Cham- 
plain, September 11, 18 14, when a small Amer- 
ican squadron under Captain McDonough pre- 
vented the invasion of New York State by a 
British army of twelve thousand, backed by a 
large fleet. 

The War of 18 12 produced some able gen- 
erals as well as sea-fighters. In Canada Gen- 
erals Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott won the 
battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, brilliant 
achievements, although resulting in no perma- 
nent military advantage. 

The Enemy in Washington. — Late In the sum- 



THE WAR OF 1812 157 

mer of 1814 a British naval and military force 
under Admiral Cockburn and General Ross 
sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, landed in Mary- 
land, and marched to Washington. They 
burned the Capitol, the White House, and some 
other Government buildings, destroying both 
public and private property. On their return 
the British attacked Baltimore, but failing to 
take the city, which was valiantly defended by 
citizens and militia, they embarked on their 
transports and sailed away to Halifax. 

It was during the bombardment of Fort Mc- 
Henry that " The Star-spangled Banner " was 
written by Francis Scott Key, who was detained 
under a flag of truce aboard a British ship. 

Jackson and the Indians. — The land fighting 
was not confined to the North. Tecumseh had 
persuaded the Creek Indians of Alabama to 
join the British against the Americans. At 
Fort Mims they massacred seven hundred 
Americans — soldiers, women, and children. 
General Andrew Jackson, commanding the 
Tennessee militia, took a prompt revenge upon 
the Indians in a series of brilliant engagements. 
He proved to be such a hard and tireless fighter 
that his soldiers gave him the nickname of " Old 
Hickory," by which he became known all over 



158 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the country. In 18 14 Jackson was placed In 
command of the entire southern department of 
the army. 

New Orleans. — On January 8, 18 15, the Brit- 
ish Army, outnumbering their foemen two to one 
and composed of veterans who had fought 
against Napoleon, made a grand assault upon 
New Orleans. 

The defenders of the city were commanded 
by General Andrew Jackson. They consisted 
of militiamen, negroes, and boys, Intrenched be- 
hind barricades of mud and cotton-bales. The 
British moved to the attack early In the morn- 
ing. From the top of the crude parapet twelve 
cannon poured their murderous fire Into the ad- 
vancing enemy. One cannon, loaded to the 
muzzle with musket-balls, brought down two 
hundred British soldiers at Its first discharge. 
In twenty-five minutes It was all over. 

The battle of New Orleans, though the most 
celebrated American victory of the war, was 
wholly unnecessary because a treaty of peace 
had been signed between Great Britain and the 
United States two weeks before In the city of 
Ghent, Belgium. Owing to the slow mode of 
transmitting news this fact was unknown to 
either army. 



THE WAR OF 1812 159 

The Hartford Convention.— The Federalists 
were violently opposed to the war with Eng- 
land. The New England members of the 
party, anxious to embarrass the Democratic ad- 
ministration and to force peace, met In conven- 
tion at Hartford, Conn., In December, 18 14. 
After a secret session of three weeks the conven- 
tion issued a report, which was a reproduction 
of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, and 
threatened the withdrawal of the New England 
States from the Union unless peace were speed- 
ily made. Before the purpose of the convention 
could be carried out peace was declared. 

The country never forgave the unpatriotic 
conduct of the New England Federalists, who 
sought to cripple the national Government In 
the hour of Its distress to force a partisan ad- 
vantage. The Hartford convention proved a 
finishing blow to the Federalist Party. Years 
afterward the memory of this episode was re- 
vived by the South to furnish a Northern prece- 
dent for the doctrine of secession. 

Results of the War. — Not a word did the 
treaty contain regarding Impressment or the 
other grievances on account of which the United 
States had gone to war. But If the original 
causes of dispute were left unsettled, the United 



i6o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

States had gained much. Great Britain never 
again impressed American sailors. The Amer- 
ican victories on sea and land raised the United 
States to the rank of a first-class power. Euro- 
pean respect for this country dates from the War 
of 1812. 

More than all this the war awakened a con- 
sciousness of nationality which Imparted a 
moral strength to the Union as nothing else 
could have done. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY AND THE 
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF POLITI- 
CAL PARTIES 

THE years immediately following the 
War of 1 8 12 were not characterized 
by startling events. James Monroe, 
of Virginia, became President in 1816 and 
served two terms. He was the last President to 
wear the cocked hat and to dress in the fashion 
of the Revolution. During his administration 
the country entered upon a period of great pros- 
perity. Commerce flourished, manufactures 
sprang up in the North, and the rich agricultural 
lands of the West came under cultivation. Then 
began that mighty stream of foreign immigra- 
tion that has poured steadily into this land ever 
since, drawn by the superior opportunities 
offered in a new and free country. 

The feeling of nationahty that had been 
awakened by the war was strengthened by the 
growth of commerce, and by the canals, the 
steamboat lines, and a little later the railroads, 

i6i 



i62 BIRD*S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

which drew the different sections nearer together 
and facilitated the settlement of the great West. 

The Purchase of Florida. — Ever since Florida 
became the property of Spain by the treaty of 
1783 it had been a constant source of annoy- 
ance to the United States. The Spanish officials 
were indifferent to their duties, and made no 
serious effort to enforce order. They violated 
international law by receiving fugitives from 
American justice, smugglers, hostile Indians, and 
other disorderly persons who took an unfair 
advantage of the fact that Florida was Spanish 
territory to use it as a base for their lawless 
operations against the people of Alabama and 
Georgia, and as a means to escape from punish- 
ment. 

The United States, thinking it desirable to 
bring this troublesome region under its con- 
trol, and also wishing to diminish as far as pos- 
sible Spanish sovereignty in the New World, 
purchased Florida in 1 8 19. It was given a terri- 
torial government, under which it remained 
until 1845, when it became a State. 

The Monroe Doctrine. — During the Napoleonic 
wars, in which all Europe was for many years 
engaged, the Spanish colonies in South America, 
inspired by the earlier example of the United 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 1&3 

States, took advantage of the mother-country's 
weakness to declare their Independence and to 
set up republican forms of government. At the 
same time Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France 
formed the " Holy Alliance," the object of 
which was to prevent the spread of republican 
ideas, then making great headway In Europe, 
and to assist Spain to recover possession of the 
South American countries which had revolted. 
Great Britain was Invited to join but refused. 
The British Government then proposed to the 
United States that the two nations unite to 
prevent the Holy Alliance from Interfering In 
South America. The cooperation of Great Brit- 
ain, with her superior navy, enabled the United 
States to take a stand that would have been im- 
possible without British support. 

President Monroe, In his message to Congress 
(December, 1823), announced the following 
principles : That the United States would not In- 
terfere with European rights on this hemisphere 
as they existed prior to that date; but that in 
future no European nation would be allowed to 
colonize any portion of North or South Amer- 
ica, or to extend hither their systems of monarchy, 
or to oppress the independent nations of either 
continent; and that the violation of any of these 



i64 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

rules would be considered an act of hostility to 
the United States. 

Although named for President Monroe, these 
principles had been previously and strongly ad- 
vocated by Jefferson, Madison, Henry Clay, and 
John Quincy Adams. 

The popular approval which greeted this mes- 
sage offered convincing proof of the growing 
spirit of nationality. 

The Monroe Doctrine has been greatly 
expanded In the course of years. Although the 
caMses which produced It have long since disap- 
peared, it is to-day more than ever the primary 
and determined rule In the foreign policy of the 
United States. 

That American antipathy to European colo- 
nization of South America Is at the present time 
based upon fear of contamination to republican 
institutions from monarchical influence Is pre- 
posterous. France is republican, and England 
is politically a democracy, but the intrusion of 
either nation would no more be tolerated than 
that of imperial Germany. 

Nor can the Idea be seriously entertained that 
it is the benevolent Intention of the United States 
to hold South America in trust until the present 
Latinized agglomeration of discordant, belllg- 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 165 

erent and venal governments reach such a stage 
of civic intelligence and strength that they can 
protect themselves from European aggressions. 

South America must some day be predomi- 
nantly Teutonic, for the Latin race, its present 
possessor, is doomed. The great Teutonic na- 
tions are England, Germany, and the United 
States. Germany, with its excess of population, 
would long ago have sought a " sphere of influ- 
ence " by political colonization and military es- 
tablishment but for the Monroe Doctrine. The 
United States, not yet ready for so tremendous 
a step as the confiscation of a continent, is fully 
determined that its rivals shall not acquire a 
foothold within an area which for nearly a cen- 
tury it has been accustomed to regard as its own 
preserve. This is the probable intent of the 
Monroe Doctrine as evidenced in the acts and 
poHcies of state. 

New Political Divisions.— The period covered 
by the two administrations of Monroe is fre- 
quently spoken of as the " Era of Good Feel- 
ing," because there was but one political party, 
the Democratic-Republican Party of Jefferson, 
or Democratic Party, as it was commonly called. 
The Alien and Sedition laws, the unsympathetic 
and distrustful attitude of the Federalists toward 



i66 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

popular government, and the unsavory episode 
of the Hartford convention proved the ruin of 
the Federalist Party. After the election of 1 8 1 6 
It completely disappeared as an organization, 
although other parties have descended from It 
which have kept alive In modified form the best 
of Its principles. 

But although there was only one political 
party In existence the period was anything but 
an era of good feehng In politics. There were 
many differences of opinion on political ques- 
tions, many bitter enmities between public men, 
and these factors were leading toward the for- 
mation of a new party. 

The Democratic Party, following the ideas of 
Jefferson, believed In as little government and 
as few laws as possible, consistent with the pub- 
lic welfare ; whatever government was necessary 
It believed should be exercised by the Individual 
States rather than by Federal authority, since the 
States were nearer to the people and centralized 
power was apt to beget tyranny. It favored a 
strict construction of the Constitution as the 
surest way to curb the aggressive tendencies of 
the Federal Government and to guard the rights 
of the States and the liberties of the people. 

The acts of the Democratic Party, though 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 167 

not always consistent with Its professions, have 
been on the whole In line with these principles. 

But the Democratic Party contained many 
men who believed that In order to reach the full- 
est national development the Federal Govern- 
ment should be given a larger measure of power; 
that there were some things that could be better 
handled by Congress than by State legislatures; 
In short, they believed In the old Federalist prin- 
ciple of a strong central government, which, 
according to their view, was not necessarily dan- 
gerous either to State rights or Individual liber- 
ties. 

The creed of these Democrats contained 
two prominent features : internal improvements^ 
such as building roads and canals, at national 
expense; and a protective tariffs that Is, a tax 
on certain goods of foreign manufacture great 
enough to keep them out of the country, so that 
the people would be compelled to buy only 
American goods. 

The principle of Internal Improvements was 
in harmony with the Interests of the farmers 
of the West, who desired roads and canals In 
order to connect them with the East and to les- 
sen the expense of transporting their agricult- 
ural products to Eastern markets. The prin- 



i68 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

ciple of protection was heartily approved by 
the manufacturers of New England, who were 
striving to establish great and permanent indus- 
tries, and would in this manner escape foreign 
competition. 

This faction of the Democratic Party was 
led by Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. 
It absorbed the Federalist remnants and grew 
rapidly, assuming the distinctive name of the 
National Republican Party. In 1824 the Na- 
tional Republicans elected John Quincy Adams 
President.* 

The administration of Adams, like that of his 
predecessor, Monroe, was uneventful. But be- 
neath the quiet surface powerful movements were 
taking definite direction. It was during the pres- 
idential terms of Monroe and Adams that the 
questions of slavery and the tariff, two of the 
greatest issues of the nineteenth century in 

* The election of 1824 was the second in our history to be 
decided by the House of Representatives, as none of the can- 
didates had a majority of the electoral votes. 

John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams and had 
formerly been a Federalist. Like his father, he was a man of 
very great ability, unselfish, incorruptible, and devoted to the 
public welfare. Like the elder Adams, too, he was consid- 
ered cold and aristocratic and largely for this reason failed 
to be reelected. After his term expired he served with dis- 
tinction for seventeen years as a member of Congress from 
Massachusetts. 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 169 

American politics, first came squarely before the 
people. 

The Slavery Question and the Missouri Com- 
promise.— It will be remembered that slavery 
formerly existed In the North as well as in the 
South, although never to so great an extent. 
The fact that it was not suited to Northern 
manufactures made It unprofitable, and led to 
Its disappearance. Even in agriculture It had 
never paid, for the small farms of the North 
were very different from the plantation system 
of the South. Only in Pennsylvania, by the 
efforts of the Quakers and some of the German 
religious bodies, was slavery abolished on strictly 
moral grounds. 

The Ordinance of 1787 had forever excluded 
slavery from the States which might in the future 
be carved out of the vast territory that stretched 
from the Ohio River to the Mississippi and 
northward to the Great Lakes. 

The Constitution, while guaranteeing protec- 
tion to slavery as it existed, forbade the Impor- 
tation of slaves after 1808. 

Many Southern people and some of the great- 
est Southern statesmen. Including Washington, 
Jefferson, and Madison, had desired the end of 
slavery. 



170 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

These facts indicated that slavery might ulti- 
mately die, or at least that it would never in- 
crease to a great extent or spread beyond the 
region where it then existed. But this expecta- 
tion was destroyed by the invention of the cot- 
ton-gin, which, by enabling one slave to do the 
work that previously required three hundred, 
increased the value of every negro, and made 
cotton the chief staple of the South. The re- 
sult was that slavery became more firmly fixed 
than ever as the basis of the industrial life of the 
South. 

Now, had slavery been confined to the lim- 
its within which it then existed all might have 
been well. It was the question of its extension 
into new territory that created trouble. The 
South realized that unless Its ranks were re- 
cruited by the addition of new slave States it 
would soon be outnumbered in Congress by the 
North, whose population was increasing at a 
rapid rate. The only way for the South to re- 
tain Its political power was by the admission of 
new States from the South-west and from that 
part of the upper West which lay beyond the 
reach of the Ordinance of 1787. Thus It could 
balance its losses in the House, where represen- 
tation was based on population, by its gains In 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 171 

the Senate, where representation was based on 
territory. 

The first skirmish in the conflict between free- 
dom and slavery occurred when Missouri ap- 
plied for admission to the Union. Hitherto 
new States had been admitted in pairs, one slave 
State for one free State. Thus Kentucky and 
Vermont came in together; Tennessee and Ohio, 
Louisiana and Indiana, Mississippi and Illinois 
offset each other. 

In 1820 Maine, which had been a part of 
Massachusetts in colonial days, was admitted 
as a separate State. The North wanted Mis- 
souri to come in as a free State, the South as a 
slave State. Henry Clay, then a member of 
Congress from Kentucky, came forward with a 
compromise. He proposed to admit Missouri 
as a slave State, but to exclude slavery forever 
from all that portion of the Louisiana Purchase 
which lay to the north of the southern bound- 
ary of Missouri. 

Clay's compromise became law in 182 1, and 
undoubtedly saved the Union. Had Missouri 
been refused admission as a slave State the 
South would probably have seceded. There was 
neither sufficient military power nor a strong 
enough national sentiment In the North at that 



172 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

time to have prevented it. It Is not likely that 
the Northern people would have rallied to the 
defence of the Union then, as they did forty 
years later. The aged but still clear-visioned 
Jefferson, living in peaceful retirement at Mon- 
ticello, heard the sharp, discordant note that 
issued from the halls of Congress and knew that 
the Missouri Compromise portended a coming 
struggle. It sounded to him, he said, " like a 
fire-bell in the night." 

The dispute over Missouri involved no moral 
principle. The motive on both sides was polit- 
ical power. The North and South wanted the 
votes of Missouri Senators and Congressmen to 
support sectional legislation. If slavery won, 
then the Northern free laborer would be shut 
out, for free labor could not compete with slave- 
labor, and white men would not go where they 
were put on a social level with the negroes. If 
the North triumphed, then the Southern slave- 
holder would be excluded. 

Close on the Missouri Compromise came the 
tariff war, which was also sectional. 

The Tariff Question. — Before the Revolution 
the colonies had depended almost wholly upon 
Great Britain for their manufactured goods. 
The two wars with the mother-country, the Em- 



THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 173 

bargo and Non-Intercourse Acts, the exorbitant 
freight rates, and the Insecurity of ocean com- 
merce at that stormy period had compelled the 
American people to make their own goods. In 
obedience to this necessity cotton and woollen 
manufactures sprang up In some of the North- 
ern States, chiefly In New England. 

At the close of the War of 18 12 the English 
merchants endeavored to recapture the American 
markets by underselling their competitors. The 
American manufacturers were In danger of being 
ruined, and applied to Congress for protection. 
In 1 8 16 Congress passed a tariff act which Im- 
posed a duty of about twenty-five per cent on 
cotton and woollen Imports. The tariff of 1824 
increased the duty to thirty-seven per cent. The 
higher duties, by removing foreign competition, 
gave to the Northern manufacturer the whole 
American market. But It caused dissatisfaction 
In the South, which had no manufactures of Its 
own, and was thus compelled to pay to the 
Northern manufacturers very high prices for 
necessaries which It could get nowhere else. 

Thus on the two great questions of slavery 
and the tariff the North and South took opposite 
sides. 



CHAPTER XIV 

ANDREW JACKSON AND THE REIGN OF THE 
PEOPLE 

THE year 1828 Is a remarkable one In 
American politics. Forces that had 
been slowly gathering for a long time 
past had now assumed definite form and direc- 
tion. 

The Election of Jackson. — Andrew Jackson was 
the first President of the United States who 
really sprang from and belonged to the " com- 
mon people." Washington, the two Adamses, 
Monroe, and even Thomas Jefierson, whose 
heart and sympathies were with the masses, were 
all members of the rich and socially prominent 
class of Americans. Jackson was a representa- 
tive of the growing South-west, a soldier and 
popular hero whose defeat of the British at New 
Orleans was still fresh In the minds of his coun- 
trymen. The triumph of Jackson In the presi- 
dential election of 1828 over Adams, who had 
the solid support of the wealthy, educated, and 

174 



THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE 175 

conservative elements, meant that the great body 
of the voters had awakened to a realization of 
their power, and from this time on were to be 
the real rulers of the nation. 

Jackson was a great man, and In some re- 
spects a great President. But he had had no 
previous training or experience In statesmanship 
such as his predecessors had enjoyed, and In- 
evitably made mistakes which they would have 
avoided. He was first of all a soldier, not a 
statesman. He himself realized this. Parton, 
In his standard biography of Jackson, says that 
when the hero learned that a New York news- 
paper had mentioned him as a presidential pos- 
sibility he exclaimed : " Do they think I am 
such a damned fool as to think myself fit for 
the presidency? No, sir; I know what I am 
good for. I can command a body of men In a 
rough way, but I am not fit for President." 
Although thoroughly honest and devoted to the 
public good, he lacked many qualities which are 
highly necessary In a chief executive. He pos- 
sessed an extraordinary will to which obstacles 
and opponents almost invariably yielded, and 
remarkable Intuitive powers. But he was sus- 
ceptible to flattery and was easily Imposed upon 
by unscrupulous politicians, who gained his con- 



176 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

fidence and friendship by artful appeals to his 
weaknesses. 

The administrations of Jackson covered eight 
years. They were full of stirring events which 
were productive of far-reaching results. He 
was the first presidential candidate nominated by 
a national convention, and the first to stand 
upon a platform of principles put forth by such 
a convention. 

The Spoils System. — The thing for which 
President Jackson has been most severely criti- 
cised is the change which he introduced into the 
civil service. Under the earlier presidents Fed- 
eral office-holders, such as postmasters, clerks, 
and customs officials, had held their positions 
as a general rule for life or during good 
behavior. To turn a man out of the employ of 
the Federal Government simply because he be- 
longed to a different party was rarely done, al- 
though it was a common practice in the State 
politics of New York and Pennsylvania. 

When Jackson became President, one of his 
first acts was to order a wholesale removal of 
Federal office-holders, putting in their places his 
own friends and followers. This practice of dis- 
tributing public offices among the members of the 
victorious party as a reward for political services 



THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE 177 

has always been regarded by most thoughtful 
men as a great evil. It Is called the " Spoils 
System " from the motto which the party In 
power so often quoted: *^ To the victors belong 
the spoils." 

But the Spoils System meant something far 
higher than mere greed for office, although 
that was doubtless the prime reason why It 
met with such enthusiastic favor. It was a 
direct and tangible evidence of the growing 
spirit of democracy^ a demand on the part of the 
great rank and file of voters that they be allowed 
to enjoy some of the positions of dignity which 
they had instituted and the salaries of which 
were paid out of their taxes. 

The Spoils System rendered one substantial 
benefit to the country by preventing what might 
have developed Into a bureaucracy of permanent 
office-holders. It had its evils, and great ones, 
but they have been reduced in recent years by 
legislative and executive action. 

Nullification.— This word as it is used In 
American history means that a State has the 
right to declare null and void and to resist any 
act of the Federal Government which it disap- 
proves. It was first asserted In the Virginia and 
Kentucky Resolutions, and was a logical conse- 



178 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

quence of the principle of State sovereignty, 
which had always been the basis of the Demo- 
cratic Party. 

The question of nullification arose in this 
way: For a long time the North and the South 
had been steadily drifting apart. Both felt 
that their interests were different. The North 
was largely industrial, the South altogether 
agricultural. The North had free labor, the 
South slave. The North wanted a high pro- 
tective tariff for Its manufactures, the Southern 
planters wanted a low tariff or none at all. Con- 
gress passed several tariff laws between 1789 
and 1828, each one higher than the last. These 
laws benefited the Northern manufacturer, but 
proved a burden to the South, especially to the 
people of South Carolina. 

In 1830 a great tariff debate, involving the 
nature and purport of the Federal Constitution, 
was held in the Senate between Robert Y. 
Hayne, of South Carolina, and Daniel Webster, 
of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Hayne asserted the doctrine of State 
sovereignty; that the Constitution was a com- 
pact between independent sovereign States and 
could be dissolved by any State at any time. 
He declared that the tariff of 1828 was unfair 



THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE 179 

to the people of South Carolina, who therefore 
had a perfect right to resist Its enforcement. 

Senator Hayne was answered by Mr. Web- 
ster, who took the position that the Constitu- 
tion was not a compact between sovereign States 
as States, but between the sovereign people of 
all the States; that no State could Interpret the 
Constitution to suit Itself or resist the laws of 
Congress. Such acts, said Mr. Webster, would 
result in anarchy. 

The speech of Webster made a deep Impres- 
sion upon the people of the North, giving a 
strong and permanent impulse to the growing 
spirit of nationality. 

In 1832 Congress passed another tariff law, 
which was more distasteful to the people of 
South Carolina than that of 1828. A State con- 
vention met and proceeded to carry out the 
threat made by Senator Hayne. The conven- 
tion passed an ordinance declaring null and void 
the tariffs of 1828 and 1832. All State officers 
were made to swear that they would support the 
ordinance. The convention further declared 
that South Carolina would secede from the 
Union if the Federal Government attempted to 
enforce the tariff laws. 

President Jackson, although a Southern man. 



i8o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

was an intense lover of the Union. He Issued 
a proclamation in which he declared that resist- 
ance to Federal laws was treason, and warned 
the people of South Carolina against taking such 
a step. Congress passed an act called the 
" force bill/' which gave the President power 
to enforce the law. 

Henry Clay came forward with a compro- 
mise. Through his efforts the objectionable 
tariff of 1832 was repealed, and a lower rate 
fixed as a concession to South Carolina. The 
Ordinance of Nullification was repealed, and 
further difficulty was for the time avoided. 

The Democracy of Jefferson and of Jackson 
Compared. — We may see right at this point the 
difference between the earlier democracy of 
Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Demo- 
cratic Party, and that of Andrew Jackson, who 
was now its chief. 

Both men believed In the rule of the people. 
But Jefferson thought that this end could best 
be effected by Independent local governments, 
that is, State sovereignty; while Jackson be- 
lieved that the reign of the people could only 
be secured through the Federal Government, 
that Is, by the whole people acting through the 
Nation, Jackson's view was also the view of 



i 



THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE i8i 

such leaders as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, 
and Chief-justice Marshall, and it was fast be- 
coming the settled conviction of the people of 
the North and West. The doctrine of State 
sovereignty continued to be firmly held by the 
people of the South, where it found its ablest 
champion in John C. Calhoun, of South Caro- 
lina. 

The national ideal of Jackson was destined 
to triumph in the end, but not without a fierce 
and terrible war between the South, defend- 
ing the ancient theory of State sovereignty, 
and the North, committed to the principle of 
nationality. 

Like Jefferson, Jackson believed that govern- 
ment to be the best, whether local or national, 
which governed least, even when the people were 
their own rulers. He was watchful to see that 
the other branches of the Federal Government 
did not overstep their Constitutional powers, 
but he did not hesitate to magnify the preroga- 
tives of his own office. 

Jackson and the Bank. — In 1816 Congress 
had chartered for a period of twenty years a 
Bank of the United States, similar to the earher 
institution founded by Hamilton, which was now 
defunct, and had deposited in its keeping the 



i82 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

revenues of the Government. In 1832, four 
years before Its charter expired, Congress grant- 
ed a new charter. The President promptly 
vetoed the bill, claiming that the Constitution 
gave Congress no such power. He also alleged 
that the existence of a private moneyed Insti- 
tution in alliance with the Government was 
dangerous to the public welfare, and that 
the bank had used its power for political pur- 
poses. 

There was some truth in these charges. A 
bitter controversy between the bank and the 
President ensued. In the election of 1832 the 
bank question was submitted to the people, who 
reelected Jackson by an Immense vote. The 
President felt encouraged, and continued his 
war against the bank with renewed vehemence. 
The next year he removed the Government de- 
posits from its custody, and in 1836, having 
failed to secure a new charter, the Bank of the 
United States came to an end.* 

It was undoubtedly best that there should be 
no such institution, since a partnership of that 
sort between a private enterprise and the Gov- 

* After the expiration of its national charter the Bank of 
the United States was incorporated by the State of Penn- 
sylvania. 



THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE 183 

ernment was liable to grave abuses, and was cer- 
tain to be the object of popular suspicion and 
attack. 

The Administration of Martin Van Buren. — 
Jackson greatly desired to be followed in the 
presidency by his friend and associate, Martin 
Van Buren, who had been Vice-president since 
1832. The Democratic Party, obeying the 
wishes of its chief, made Van Buren its candi- 
date in the campaign of 1836, with the result 
that he was elected. Van Buren was an able 
and experienced statesman and a remarkably 
adroit politician, but he was given only one term 
in the White House. 

In 1837 the country passed through a period 
of " hard times." A great financial panic ruined 
business and brought disaster to many people. 
It was due principally to the frenzy for specula- 
tion which had seized the public mind, and 
found expression in delusive schemes of money- 
making. The panic was precipitated, however, 
by the bank policy of Jackson, which caused 
temporary derangement in the financial world. 
The destruction of the wheat crop of 1836 in 
many States by the Hessian fly aggravated the 
suffering produced by the rise in the price of 
money. 



i84 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Rise and First Success of the Whig Party. — 
Andrew Jackson had been a self-willed and 
arbitrary President. His warfare against the 
bank displeased a large number of Democrats. 
For the purpose of opposing Jackson more 
effectively his enemies joined forces with the 
National Republicans, whose leader and idol 
was Henry Clay, the most eloquent and mag- 
netic orator in the country. Under the magic 
influence of Clay a new and effective party was 
organized which offered a united opposition to 
the Jackson Democrats. 

The Whig Party,* for so it was named, held 
to the Federalist doctrine of large powers for 
the national Government, and to the National 
Republican policies of internal improvements at 
national expense and a protective tariff. An- 
other of its leaders was Daniel Webster. In 
1832 the Whigs ran Henry Clay for the presi- 
dency against Jackson with the result already 
noted. 

The panic of 1837 proved a fortunate event 
for the Whigs, for it furnished ammunition for 

* "Whig" was the name adopted in 1680 by a poHtical 
party in England which opposed the tyranny of the king. 
Jackson's enemies denounced him as a tyrant and tried to 
establish an historical parallel between themselves and the 
English party which stood for liberty. 



THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE 185 

the guns of campaign oratory. The Whigs 
heaped reproach upon the Democrats and fanned 
the flame of popular discontent. 

In 1840 the Whigs nominated General Will- 
iam Henry Harrison for President. The candi- 
date was an old soldier with an heroic record 
In the Indian war of 18 11. He had never been 
very active In politics, and hence had made no 
enemies. He was now living as a farmer In 
Ohio. John Tyler, of Virginia, was named for 
Vice-president In order to draw votes In the 
South. 

The Whigs had no platform, and did not 
declare for a single principle. They simply at- 
tacked Van Buren's administration, laying upon 
It all the blame for the hard times. General 
Harrison's war record made him a popular can- 
didate. People remembered his defeat of the 
Indians, and affectionately called him " Old 
Tippecanoe." They also remembered the panic 
of 1837. Van Buren was renominated by the 
Democrats, but Harrison was elected by an Im- 
mense majority. 

The Whigs Fail to Make a Record.— Notwith- 
standing their success at the polls, the Whigs 
accomplished nothing of Importance during their 
four years of supremacy in the councils of the 



i86 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

nation. General Harrison was sixty-eight years 
old and physically infirm. The labors of his 
office proved too great for his strength, and he 
died exactly one month after his inauguration. 

Then trouble began for the Whigs. John 
Tyler became President. He had formerly been 
a Democrat, but had left his party because he 
disliked Jackson. He was still a Democrat at 
heart. The Whig Congress passed two bills to 
reestablish a national bank. President Tyler 
vetoed them both, at which the whole Whig 
Party became enraged. The members of the 
Cabinet resigned, and the President showed his 
true colors by appointing Democrats to fill their 
places. 

With Congress and the President at variance 
with each other the Whigs could accomplish 
but little. 



CHAPTER XV 

INVENTION, LITERATURE, MORAL PROGRESS, 
AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 

THE population of the United States In 
1830, east of the Mississippi River, 
was thirteen millions. The country 
was remarkably prosperous. There were few 
very rich men, and none who were very poor. 

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was begun 
In 1827. From that time on railroads Increased 
rapidly In the East, though the stage-coach con- 
tinued to be for many years a common mode of 
travel. 

The canals, which were constructed after the 
War of 18 12, proved a great benefit to the 
farmers by reducing freight charges, thus ena- 
bling them to sell their produce In distant mar- 
kets at a greater profit. 

Invention was busy devising means to lessen 
human toll and Increase the product of Indus- 
try by making use of machinery. The McCor- 

mlck reaper was placed In the market In 1831, 

187 



i88 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and proved a great boon to agriculture. The 
invention of the sewing-machine by Ellas Howe 
In 1846 came as a blessing to women In their 
homes and to the thousands who tolled In busy 
factories. But the crowning achievement of In- 
ventive genius was the Morse electric telegraph, 
over which the first message was despatched in 
1844. 

The use of anthracite coal for smelting Iron, 
together with other improvements In the process 
of mining, soon placed the iron and coal mines 
of Pennsylvania In the front rank of American 
industries. New England was steadily develop- 
ing as a manufacturing centre. 

Newspapers were numerous and exerted a 
powerful Influence upon the minds of the peo- 
ple concerning the prominent questions of the 
day. 

Many of the celebrated authors who have 
contributed so largely to the glory of their coun- 
try were now beginning to write. " The Sketch 
Book " had already made the name of Washing- 
ton Irving familiar In Europe as well as In 
America. James Fenimore Cooper's sea-tales 
and stories of pioneer life had given him an 
international fame. The histories of Bancroft 
and Prescott, the weird imagination of Edgar 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 189 

Allan Poe, the mystery of Hawthorne, the prac- 
tical essays of Emerson, the poems of Longfel- 
low, Whittler, Bryant, Holmes, and Lowell all 
proclaimed that this country, though half Its 
area was still unbroken wilderness, was the home 
of a very real culture and a high degree of In- 
tellectual life. 

Why the South did not Develop. — In this In- 
dustrial and literary progress the South had lit- 
tle part. The reason for Its backwardness In 
development was the existence of slavery. The 
Southern people were as able, as Intelligent, as 
ambitious as the people of the North, but as 
long as slavery was the basis of their Industrial 
system they could not develop In the same direc- 
tion or to as high a degree. Slavery prevented 
immigration because free labor could not com- 
pete with slave labor, and because white men 
would not perform the work which had been 
associated for centuries with slavery. There 
could be no manufactures because the slave was 
incapable of anything but agriculture, and even 
in that he was slow, stupid, and wasteful. 

If slavery was a burden, why did not the 
South get rid of it? One reason was that the 
South did not realize how great a burden it 
really was. Slavery had always existed; the 



190 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

South had never known any other system. To 
change Its industrial basis would have been a 
tremendous undertaking, Involving huge finan- 
cial risk, perhaps temporary ruin. If the slave 
should be emancipated, what would become of 
him, and who would take his place ? The South 
would have to pay him wages and would get no 
better work. 

Slave Life. — If slavery was on the whole a bad 
thing for the white man, It conferred unques- 
tionable benefits upon the black man. It found 
the negro a savage of the lowest type In Africa, 
and In less than two centuries transformed him 
into a civilized being, trained and Christian- 
ized. 

But the lot of the slave differed according to 
locality and according to the kind of service he 
performed. In the Border States the evils of 
slavery were less and Its benefits to the negro 
greater than In the Far South. Again, house- 
servants were better cared for than field-hands. 
Between the house-servant and the family of the 
master there often existed a deep and sincere 
personal attachment. He was frequently edu- 
cated In a rudimentary way and always well 
cared for. The field-hands were less fortunate. 
Their hours were long, their food and cloth- 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 



191 



ing coarse, and their treatment sometimes 
cruel. 

It is a fact of marked significance that serious 
crime among negroes was almost unknown in 
the days of slavery. 

The AboUtionists. — With the exception of the 
Pennsylvania Quakers and some of the German 
sects, who had raised an early protest against 
slavery, there was very little hostility to the in- 
stitution on moral grounds anywhere in the 
North until 1830. Massachusetts, New Jersey, 
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois enacted stringent 
legislation against negroes, either forbidding 
their presence in the State or prescribing 
conditions and duration of residence. In 
Boston a merchant or a mechanic who took 
a negro apprentice incurred the bane of os- 
tracism. 

On the first day of January, 1831, a news- 
paper appeared in that city called the Liberator. 
It was edited by William Lloyd Garrison and 
championed the cause of emancipation. Within 
ten years there were hundreds of anti-slavery so- 
cieties in the Northern States advocating the 
immediate abolition of slavery. Prominent 
among the abolitionists were Wendell Phillips 
and Theodore Parker, of Boston, both leading 



192 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

citizens and eloquent orators; Gerrlt Smith, 
Lucretia Mott, Thaddeus Stevens, John Green- 
leaf Whittler, and later James Russell Lowell 
and Henry Ward Beecher. 

Public opinion in the North was intensely- 
hostile to the abolitionists. The commercial 
interests opposed them because their doctrines 
jeopardized trade relations with the South. 
The abolitionists were denounced as enemies of 
the Union, and with reason, for their slogan 
was, " Extinguish slavery or dissolve the 
Union." Wendell Phillips, who was graduated 
a lawyer, refused to support the Constitution 
because it recognized slavery. Garrison called 
the Constitution '' a covenant with death and 
an agreement with hell." Abolition newspapers 
were destroyed and the leaders themselves fre- 
quently mobbed. George Thompson, a British 
orator in the cause of abolition, was ejected from 
a hotel in New York at the demand of a South- 
ern guest, and the lecturer was publicly warned 
by the press not to speak in the city. In New 
England he fared much worse. 

But the movement gathered strength despite 
opposition, and the conviction that slavery was 
morally wrong rapidly took root in the North- 
ern mind. 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 193 

The South was naturally Incensed at the men 
who called slave-holding a sin and advocated 
with such fiery and persistent zeal the destruc- 
tion of millions of dollars worth of private 
property guaranteed by the Constitution. The 
Southern people resented being held up as the 
arch-sinners of the nation merely because they 
adhered to a system of labor inherited from 
their fathers, for which they were no more re- 
sponsible than the people of the North. If the 
abolitionist regarded the slave-holder as a mon- 
ster, the slave-holder looked upon the abolition- 
ist as an anarchist. 

Great Statesmen. — The first half of the nine- 
teenth century was an age of great statesmen. 
In the Senate and House of Representatives 
were some of the most gifted men in the history 
of the nation: John C. Calhoun, the able de- 
fender of State sovereignty; Henry Clay and 
Daniel Webster, the zealous champions of na- 
tionality, and others scarcely less distinguished. 

Here, at least, the South was not behind the 
North. The Southerner had a natural aptitude 
for political leadership, which had always been 
recognized ever since the days of the Revolu- 
tion. The institution of slavery bred in him the 
habit of authority and gave him leisure for the 



194 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

mastery of politics, which became his most seri- 
ous occupation. 

Another reason why there were so many men 
of extraordinary ability in political life, North 
as well as South, is because at that time there 
was but one profession which offered oppor- 
tunity for both wealth and fame. That profes- 
sion was the law. It is not far from the truth 
to say that all lawyers were politicians and all 
politicians were lawyers. The practice of law 
brought wealth, while politics brought popular- 
ity and distinction. To-day there are many 
occupations where the opportunities for wealth 
and fame are as great as In the law. For this 
reason law and politics no longer attract all the 
best talent of the land. 

Growth of Democracy. — In its structure the 
Government was developing along the lines of 
federalism and nationality marked out by Alex- 
ander Hamilton. But In its spirit It was stead- 
ily realizing the democratic Ideals of Thomas 
Jefferson. The people had vastly more Influ- 
ence and political power than they possessed 
when the Constitution was adopted In 1789. 
At that time nearly every State refused to allow 
a man to vote unless he owned a certain amount 
of property or belonged to a certain church. 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 195 

Out of a total population of five millions, only 
one hundred and fifty thousand In the United 
States were voters. Gradually the leaven of 
democracy spread. Older States removed some 
of their restrictions upon the suffrage, while the 
new States In their constitutions prescribed 
broader qualifications. By 1830 the suffrage 
was almost as free as It Is to-day. 

The growing spirit of fraternity found ex- 
pression In various reforms and humanitarian 
movements, such as the establishment of public 
hospitals, asylums, libraries, and the Improve- 
ment of prisons. The Eastern Penitentiary at 
Philadelphia, built In 1830, first provided sepa- 
rate cells for criminals. New York and Penn- 
sylvania were the pioneers In the establishment 
of rural schools, which placed the rudiments of 
education within easy reach of the country boys 
and girls. In 1833 Oberlln College In Ohio 
opened Its doors to women. 

We cannot emphasize too strongly the Im- 
portance of this democratic spirit which was be- 
coming more and more the keynote of American 
life. It Is a part of the American creed that 
every man deserves and ought to have a fair 
chance to succeed In life; that a man must be 
judged not by his family descent, not by his 



196 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

wealth, not by his education, but by what he 
is and what he accomplishes; by the use which 
he makes of the opportunities which America 
affords him. 

Note.— THE MORMONS. In 1830 Joseph Smith, an 
ignorant but shrewd adventurer, proclaimed that he had re- 
ceived a divine commission to found a new religion. He 
claimed to have discovered, through an angel, some golden 
tablets containing a revelation from heaven which he pub- 
lished as the Book of Mormon. Smith gained converts and 
established successive settlements in Ohio, Missouri, and 
IHinois. His followers took the name of Mormons or Latter- 
day Saints. 

After the death of Smith in Nauvoo, 111., at the hands of 
a mob, Brigham Young led the ''Saints" to Utah, where 
they built Salt Lake City. Polygamy was enjoined upon 
the Mormons by their early leaders as a religious and 
political duty. When Utah was admitted as a State in 
1896 it was on condition that the practice of plural mar- 
riage should be abandoned — a pledge which has been per- 
sistently and flagrantly disregarded. 

The extraordinary thing about Mormonism is its superb 
organization. The Church is ruled by twelve Apostles 
whose word is law and who practically own the State. The 
Mormons number about three hundred thousand. They 
are exceedingly prosperous. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 

JOHN TYLER was an accidental President, 
whose elevation to that office was due to 
the death of his chief. He was anxious 
to be elected President on his own strength and 
merits. 

Texas and the Election of 1844. — As he could 
not hope to be nominated by the Whigs, Tyler 
determined to gain the favor of the Democrats 
by advocating the annexation of Texas, a meas- 
ure greatly desired by the dominant Southern 
wing of the Democratic Party. Neither the 
Northern Democrats nor the Whigs wanted 
Texas, but as the main strength of the Demo- 
cratic Party was in the South it was to President 
Tyler's advantage to cultivate the favor of the 
Southern Democrats. Besides, being a Southern 
man, he naturally favored his own section. 

Texas had long been a province of Mexico, 
but its population was largely composed of 
197 



198 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

American settlers from the Southern States. In 
1836 Texas revolted from Mexico and estab- 
lished an Independent republic under the presi- 
dency of Sam Houston, formerly Governor of 
Tennessee, and the next year applied for admis- 
sion to the Union. 

The Southern politicians favored its admis- 
sion because It would give the South two more 
members In the Senate, where all the States were 
equal In representation, and thus make up for 
their weakness in the House of Representatives, 
where the North had a steadily growing ma- 
jority. 

The North was opposed to the admission of 
Texas because It meant an extension of slave 
territory and of Southern political power. 

In the hope of gaining the Democratic nomi- 
nation President Tyler did his best to bring 
about the annexation of Texas during his term 
of office. He did not succeed in either of his 
purposes, but he made the Texas question the 
main Issue in the election of 1844. 

The Democrats Again in Power. — The Whigs 
nominated Henry Clay and declared against an- 
nexation. The Democrats nominated James K. 
Polk, of Tennessee, and George M. Dallas, of 
Pennsylvania, and declared for annexation. The 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 199 

abolitionists, whose strength was Increasing, or- 
ganized the Liberty Party and took the field on 
the Issue of slavery with James G. BIrney as its 
presidential candidate. 

The election turned upon New York, where 
the Liberty Party drew so many votes from the 
Whigs that the Democrats carried the State. 

The Democratic Party was again In full con- 
trol of the national Government. Congress 
passed a resolution of annexation, and Texas 
became a State of the Union in 1845. 

Henceforth the question of the extension of 
slavery was the one absorbing Issue In all minds. 

The War with Mexico, 1846-48. — The South 
did not long remain content with the single addi- 
tion of Texas to the strength and number of the 
slave States. The rapid growth of Northern 
population meant an Increasing Northern ma- 
jority In Congress. The only way for the South 
to preserve its influence in the national Govern- 
ment was to Increase Its representation in the 
Senate. This could be done only by creating 
new States, which required the addition of more 
south-western territory. But there was no more 
available ; everything west of Texas belonged to 
Mexico. 

The United States Government, finding itself 



200 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

unable to acquire justly the additional territory 
demanded by the South, thereupon resorted 
to an extraordinary measure. It decided to take 
by force a portion of Mexico and annex It for 
the benefit of the Southern slave-holders. 

Between the Rio Grande and the Nueces 
rivers lay a strip of territory about three hun- 
dred miles long by fifty to one hundred wide. 
Both the United States and Mexico claimed this 
land, but it really belonged to Mexico. 

President Polk sent a fleet to the Gulf of 
Mexico and ordered General Zachary Taylor 
to take possession of the disputed territory. On 
May 8th, at Palo Alto, General Taylor encoun- 
tered a Mexican army three times as large as his 
own and won a complete victory. The next 
day he defeated the Mexicans at the battle of 
Resaca de la Palma, and In September took the 
city of Monterey. The capture of Monterey 
was followed a few months later by the victory 
of Buena Vista, where General Taylor and 
General Wool, with only five thousand Ameri- 
cans, defeated twenty thousand Mexicans under 
Santa Anna. 

The battle of Buena Vista ended General 
Taylor's military career. The Whigs were be- 
ginning to mention his name as a candidate for 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 201 

the presidency. The Democratic administra- 
tion feared that If he were allowed to win any 
more victories he would become such a popular 
hero that nothing could prevent his nomination 
and election. General Taylor was therefore 
ordered home, and General WInfield Scott took 
his place. 

General Scott proved fully as successful as 
Taylor. With the aid of a fleet the coast city 
of Vera Cruz was taken (March 27, 1847). 
From that point General Scott began his march 
to the capital of Mexico, a city of two hundred 
thousand Inhabitants, situated two hundred miles 
In the Interior on a high plateau, ascent to which 
was difficult and dangerous. A succession of 
brilliant victories marked his progress. On 
September 14th six thousand American troops 
entered In triumph the City of Mexico and 
raised the stars and stripes over the palace. 

The war was over. It had been an unbroken 
series of victories for the Americans against 
vastly superior numbers. The Mexicans were 
brave soldiers, but they were badly organized, 
poorly officered, and the Mexican Government 
was In a state of anarchy. The Americans were 
thoroughly disciplined, and their generals and 
regimental officers were unusually able men. 



202 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Just as the French and Indian War had pre- 
pared the colonial officers for the larger battles 
of the Revolution, so the war with Mexico 
served as the training school for the future 
commanders who were to lead the armies of 
the North and of the South in the great Civil 
War fast approaching. 

Results of the Mexican War. — On February 
2, 1848, the peace commissioners of the two 
countries signed the treaty of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo, so called from the town where the 
commissioners met. Mexico gave up to the 
United States not only the small tract between 
the Rio Grande and Nueces rivers, but the vast 
territory lying between Texas and the Pacific 
Ocean, comprising Arizona, New Mexico, Cali- 
fornia, Utah, Nevada, and parts of Colorado 
and Wyoming. 

As if In partial apology for Its ruthless bri- 
gandage, the United States paid Mexico a 
gratuity of $15,000,000 for the forced cession 
of this valuable area — the only feature of the 
entire affair at all indicative of that magnan- 
imity and decency which have usually character- 
ized the proceedings of this nation. 

The Mexican War had the further effect of 
making slavery more than ever the paramount 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 203 

Issue of the day, for the question Immediately 
arose, Shall slavery be permitted to spread to 
the new territories? The North said no; the 
South, yes. The question came definitely before 
the country when David Wllmot, a member of 
Congress from Pennsylvania, moved In the 
House of Representatives that slavery be for- 
ever excluded from the territory won from 
Mexico. The motion was voted down, but 
the Wllmot Proviso became the rallying point 
for the growing anti-slavery forces of the 
North. 

The Election of 1848. — The Whigs, taking ad- 
vantage of General Taylor's great popularity, 
nominated him for President at a convention 
held In Philadelphia. Neither Whigs nor Dem- 
ocrats were willing at this time to take a bold 
stand for or against slavery In the territories, 
since both parties were afraid of losing votes 
If they committed themselves In one way or the 
other. Many of the anti-slavery men thereupon 
withdrew from the old parties, and uniting with 
the Liberty men, or extreme abolitionists, formed 
the Free Soil Party, and nominated ex-PresIdent 
Martin Van Buren, of New York. 

Again, as In 1844, the election turned upon 
New York. Van Buren drew so many Demo- 



204 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

cratic votes that the State was carried by the 
Whigs, and Taylor was elected. 

California. — In the summer of 1848 some 
workmen, while building a saw-mill on the Sac- 
ramento River, saw bright yellow particles 
gleaming In the sand. Upon examination these 
proved to be gold. 

In a short time the whole world knew that 
gold had been discovered In California. The 
country went wild. Physicians abandoned their 
practice, judges left the bench, merchants closed 
their shops, and farmers sold their acres. A 
torrent of humanity crazy for wealth poured 
into California. There were no great railroads 
connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific, over 
which eager men might speed in five days. 
Some crossed the mountains and prairies of the 
West In deadly peril of hostile Indians; some 
went by way of the Isthmus of Panama, with its 
no less deadly fevers; others took passage in 
slow sailing vessels down the South American 
coast and around Cape Horn, the longest, but 
the safest of the three routes. Cities and towns 
sprang up almost In a night. 

Within a year there were enough people In 
California to warrant Its admission as a State. 
Then trouble began. The Immigrants from 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 205 

Northern States outnumbered those from the 
South. The majority were opposed to slavery, 
and drew up a State Constitution which forbade 
it. The South, finding that so large a part of 
the territory which had been gained for slavery 
at the terrible cost of war was about to join 
forces with the North, opposed the admission 
of California. 

Again the " Great Pacificator," Henry Clay, 
came forward with a compromise. He more 
than any other man had secured the passage 
of the Missouri Compromise and the com- 
promise tariff of 1833. Now, for the third and 
last time, this patriotic statesman, whose one 
purpose was to preserve the Union of the States, 
guided the embittered sections through another 
crisis. 

The Compromise of 1850. — The measures ad- 
vocated by Henry Clay consisted of a series of 
eight laws which were passed during the summer 
of 1850. The most Important features were 
these : i. California to be admitted as a free State 
in accordance with the wishes of the majority of 
its citizens. 2. A Fugitive Slave Law, demand- 
ing the return of runaway slaves who might es- 
cape to the Northern States. 3. The people of 
New Mexico and Utah to determine for them- 



2o6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

selves whether or not slavery should be allowed 
to exist In those territories. 

The first law pleased the North, but dis- 
pleased the South; the third pleased the South, 
but not the North ; the Fugitive Slave Law was 
obviously in favor of the slave-holders, and 
highly repugnant to the Northern abolitionists, 
but was In strict accord with the Constitu- 
tion. However, the Compromise of 1850 
seemed to be the best arrangement that could 
be made. 

Three Great Speeches were made in the Senate 
in the month of March while the Compromise 
was under discussion. The first was a strong 
and eloquent argument by John C. Calhoun, de- 
fending the institution of slavery. The second 
speech was by Daniel Webster, supporting all 
the measures of the Compromise; It was an ap- 
peal for the preservation of the Union, which 
he clearly saw was imperilled, and was addressed 
to the temperate and conservative element of the 
entire nation. The third represented the ex- 
treme abolitionist point of view, and was deliv- 
ered in opposition to the measure by William 
H. Seward, of New York. 

Webster, Clay, and Calhoun died within a 
short time of each other, and their places were 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 207 

taken by Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, Sew- 
ard, and Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. 

The Election of 1852 and the Death of the Whig 
Party. — President Taylor had died the year 
after his Inauguration, and had been succeeded 
by the Vice-president, Millard Fillmore. Nei- 
ther Taylor nor Fillmore was a political leader. 

There was great dissatisfaction throughout 
the nation with the Whig Party. It had tried to 
steer a middle course between the friends and 
the enemies of slavery. It had endeavored to 
please both sides while committing itself to 
neither. Its Northern members were displeased 
because it would not condemn slavery, and its 
Southern members because it would not de- 
nounce the abolitionists. In the election of 1852 
It carried only four States. This marked the 
end of the Whig Party. The Federalist Party, 
from which the Whigs were descended, and 
whose principles and policies they had Inherited 
to a great extent, died because it was too aris- 
tocratic. The Whig Party died because it lacked 
backbone. It left no permanent legislation, and 
Is not associated with any great or vital facts 
In American history. 

The Democratic Party, on the contrary, stood 
for definite ideas and purposes, although they 



2o8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

were not always right ones. Its main strength 
was In the South, but it was powerful also in the 
North. It was as old as the national Govern- 
ment Itself, It had played an Important part In 
history, and its leaders had been among the 
greatest of Americans. These facts gave It a 
place In the affections of the people. It had not 
vacillated, as the Whig Party had done, but was 
outspoken In Its defence of slavery — though not 
unanimously In favor of Its extension. This was 
because the Constitution recognized and allowed 
slavery, and the Democratic Party was pledged 
to defend whatever rights were guaranteed by 
the Constitution. 

With the defeat of the Whigs In 1852 the 
Democrats returned to power, electing Franklin 
Pierce, of New Hampshire, President. 

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854. — A new 
Democratic leader now appeared In the person 
of Stephen A. Douglas, United States Senator 
from Illinois. He introduced a bill in Congress 
providing territorial government for Kansas 
and Nebraska, which Included that part of the 
Louisiana Purchase extending from Indian Ter- 
ritory to the Canadian boundary. From this re- 
gion slavery had supposedly been forever ex- 
cluded by the Missouri Compromise. 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 209 

The Kansas-Nebraska bill was a Southern 
measure. It declared that Congress had ex- 
ceeded its Constitutional authority when it passed 
the Missouri Compromise; that it was for the 
people of the territories, not for Congress, to 
say whether slavery should exist there ; and that 
consequently the Missouri Compromise, which 
had been in force for thirty-four years, was null 
and void. The doctrine involved in this law was 
popularly known as " Squatter Sovereignty." 

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was 
a great blunder, for it reopened the question of 
slavery in a region where the North and the 
South had by mutual agreement ceased to dis- 
pute about It. 

Violence in Kansas. — Immigrants from North- 
ern and Southern States flocked in great num- 
bers to Kansas, which became the battle-ground 
between freedom and slavery. The ambitions 
of the South had suffered partial defeat when 
California came in as a free State, and the 
South was determined that Kansas should be 
admitted as a slave State to balance the loss 
of California. The North was equally deter- 
mined that it should enter as a free State. The 
first election was claimed by both the slavery 
and anti-slavery forces, and each side formed a 



2IO BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

territorial government. Anarchy and blood- 
shed followed. Eventually the immigrants 
from the North outnumbered those from the 
South, as they had done in the case of Califor- 
nia. They drew up a constitution prohibiting 
slavery, but Kansas did not become a State 
until 1 86 1. 

The Birth of the Republican Party and the 
Election of 1856. — The Kansas-Nebraska Act 
had the effect of consolidating the anti-slavery 
forces. Many Northern Democrats joined the 
Free Soil Party, which had also absorbed many 
Whigs. These men, led by William H. Seward, 
of New York, and Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, 
organized the Republican Party, and took the 
field on the principal issue of slavery. 

The Republican Party was the lineal de- 
scendant of the Federalist and Whig parties. 
It believed in liberal powers for the Federal 
Government, and declared that Congress had 
full power to permit or forbid slavery in the 
territories, regardless of the wishes of the in- 
habitants. It also favored the Whig policies of 
Internal Improvements at national expense and 
a protective tariff. 

The birth of the Republican Party definitely 
aligned the North and South against each other. 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 211 

There were no Southern members to compel It 
to hedge or temporize. Its avowed purpose 
was to overthrow the slave power. 

The Southern Whigs, alarmed at the aggres- 
siveness and growing influence of the abolition- 
ists, joined the Democrats. Slavery was divid- 
ing the parties, as it had already split the 
churches.* 

In 1856 the Republican Party named its first 
presidential ticket, which was headed by John 
C. Fremont, of California. The Democrats 
had lost strength in the North, and could not 
hope to win without Pennsylvania. In order 
to make sure of that State they nominated James 
Buchanan, who had served as Secretary of State 
in Pierce's administration. Buchanan was 
elected, but the Republicans carried eleven 
States. 

The election of 1856 exhibited a united 
South pitted against a disunited North. The 
new President sympathized wholly with the 

* Between 1844 and 1853 the Methodist, Baptist, and 
Presbyterian churches separated into Northern and Southern 
organizations over the question of slavery. The last few 
years have witnessed successful efforts to bridge the chasm 
created so long ago. Although the Northern and Southern 
branches of these denominations have not come into an or- 
ganic reunion, their relations are wholly fraternal. 



212 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

South, and appointed Southern men to fill most 
of his Cabinet offices. 

The Dred Scott Decision.— In 1857 the Su- 
preme Court rendered a decision which con- 
firmed the Southern and Democratic view that 
Congress had no right to legislate for the terri- 
tories on the question of slavery. 

One of the powers exercised by the Supreme 
Court is to declare whether the laws passed by 
Congress are in accord with the Constitution. 
But the Court cannot pass upon the Constitu- 
tionality of any law until some case comes regu- 
larly before it which involves that question. 
The Missouri Compromise had been in effect 
for nearly forty years, and no lawsuit had ever 
been brought to test its Constitutionality until 

1857. 

Dred Scott was a slave belonging to a sur- 
geon in the army. His master was ordered by 
the Government to a garrison in the Nebraska 
territory, and took the slave with him. After 
remaining there two years, master and slave re- 
turned to Missouri, where Dred Scott was sold. 
The slave then brought suit against his master 
for his freedom. He argued that since the Mis- 
souri Compromise had forever prohibited sla- 
very in that territory he had become a free man 



THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN POLITICS 213 

by living there. Then it was that the Supreme 
Court, to which the case had been appealed, de- 
cided that the Missouri Compromise was null 
and void because the Constitution gave Con- 
gress no power to exclude slavery from the ter- 
ritories. 

This decision was perfectly consistent with 
the Democratic doctrine of large powers for 
local government and limited powers for the 
Federal Government. The South hailed it with 
approval, the North with contempt. 

The Raid and Execution of John Brown. — In 
1859 occurred an event which further fanned 
the flame of sectional bitterness. John Brown 
had been one of the free-State leaders in the 
Kansas troubles. He was honest and coura- 
geous, but lacked judgment, and was a fanatic on 
the subject of slavery. In the summer of 1859 
Brown and a band of followers seized the 
United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry for 
the purpose of distributing the arms which it 
contained to the slaves of Virginia, so that they 
might rise in insurrection and secure their free- 
dom. United States troops and militia from 
Virginia and Maryland were sent to Harper's 
Ferry under the command of Colonel Robert 
E. Lee. John Brown was captured, and after 



214 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

a fair and open trial by the State of Virginia 
was convicted of murder and treason and 
hanged. 

The John Brown raid injured the abolition- 
ist cause for a time. Public opinion was strong- 
ly against such methods, and there was a slight 
reaction In favor of the slave-holder. The 
South, having In mind the recent West Indian 
slave Insurrection, where murder, arson, and 
anarchy ran their horrible course, realized the 
peril of a slave uprising, and was more bitter 
than ever against the abolitionists. 



CHAPTER XVII 

SECESSION 

THE presidential year i860 found sec- 
tional lines more sharply drawn than 
ever. What shall be the attitude of 
Congress toward slavery in the territories? 
This was the question which the political par- 
ties must face. 

The Election of Abraham Lincoln. — The Demo- 
cratic Party met in convention at Charleston, 
S. C. It was hopelessly divided. After ballot- 
ing fifty-seven times in vain for a candidate it 
adjourned. 

The Southern wing met in Richmond and 
nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. 
It declared that slavery was recognized by the 
Constitution, and that it was just as much the 
duty of Congress to protect the rights of the 
slave-holder to his property in the territories as 
elsewhere. 

The Northern Democrats met in Baltimore 
and nominated Stephen A. Douglas. They de- 
sired to get the slavery issue entirely out of 

21S 



2i6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

national politics. Their platform declared that 
the Constitution had given Congress no power 
to deal with the question, but that the territories 
must decide for themselves. This had been the 
Democratic position In the debates on the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bill. 

The Republicans assembled In Chicago and 
nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. He 
had first attracted national attention in 1858 by 
a series of brilliant debates with Douglas when 
both men were canvassing Illinois for the United 
States senatorshlp. The Republican platform 
pronounced slavery to be an evil. It afiirmed 
that It was both the right and the duty of Con- 
gress to keep It out of the territories, although 
denying any intention to interfere with it in the 
States where it already existed. The party re- 
peated Its declaration of 1856 In favor of a pro- 
tective tariff. 

A fourth party, composed of those who did 
not know just where they stood, but desired 
peace above all else, took the name of Consti- 
tutional Union. Their slogan was '' The Con- 
stitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the 
laws " — which meant nothing at all, unless It 
meant to continue things as they were, which 
was Impossible. 



SECESSION 217 

The contest narrowed down to a duel be- 
tween the Southern Democrats and the Repub- 
hcans over the question, Shall Congress protect 
or shall it forbid slavery in the territories? 
With a few exceptions, the Breckinridge Dem- 
ocrats swept the slave States from Delaware to 
Texas. The Republicans carried all the free 
States.* Lincoln was elected, although in a 
minority of a million in the total popular vote. 

Thus the South lost the supremacy which it 
had held in the national councils since the forma- 
tion of the Government. 

Secession of the Cotton States.— The slave- 
holders of the cotton States had all along been 
the most aggressive champions of slavery and 
the most zealous advocates of its extension into 
new areas. One reason for their excessive de- 
votion to the Institution of slavery was that 
their form of agriculture was the most dependent 
upon slave-labor. They understood the election 
of Lincoln to signify that the Republican Party 
would use the powers of the Federal Govern- 
ment to destroy the very basis upon which their 
wealth and political Influence rested. Although 

* The Constitutional Union Party carried Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Virginia. The Douglas Democrats carried 
Missouri and three out of New Jersey's seven electoral votes. 



2i8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

numbering but a small part of the white popu- 
lation of their section, yet the political power 
of this tiny minority was so great that It not 
only ruled the South, but It had dictated to the 
nation for many years. 

Having lost control of the Federal Govern- 
ment, the slave power now determined to build 
a new government to suit Itself. It had enjoyed 
supreme authority too long to be willing to sur- 
render It now. 

The South Atlantic and Gulf States were con- 
vinced that by virtue of their control of the pro- 
duction of cotton they had not only the North, 
but Europe at their mercy. Said Senator Ham- 
mond: *' I firmly believe that the slave-holding 
South is now the controlling power of the world; 
that no other power will face us In hostilities." 

On December 20th South Carolina passed an 
ordinance of secession, and withdrew from the 
Union. Within six weeks Mississippi, Florida, 
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas fol- 
lowed. On February 14, 1861, these States 
formed a new government under the name of 
the Confederate States of America, and elected 
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President, and 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-presi- 
dent. Davis was a man of brains, address, self- 



SECESSION 219 

confidence, and indomitable courage; Stephens, 
an intellectual prodigy of diminutive physical 
stature and feeble health. Montgomery, Ala., 
was chosen for the capital. 

The Federal Government in the meantime 
did nothing, for It was the policy of the Bu- 
chanan administration to avert war if possible. 
The President believed that he had no right 
to coerce a State. Nearly all the members 
of his Cabinet were in open sympathy with 
secession. 

Fort Sumter. — Very soon after his inaugura- 
tion President Lincoln sent reenforcements to 
Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. This action 
was taken by the Confederacy to mean that the 
Federal Government had decided upon war. 
President Davis ordered General Beauregard, 
who was In command of the Confederate forces 
about Charleston, to open fire on the fort. 

The cannonading which began on the morn- 
ing of April 12, 1 861, proclaimed to the world 
that the greatest civil war of all the ages had 
now begun. Major Anderson defended the fort 
with valor, but his men were few, their provi- 
sions were exhausted, and it was impossible to 
hold out long. After thirty-four hours' heroic 
resistance, during which the fort was reduced to 



220 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

ruins, Major Anderson surrendered, and the 
garrison marched out with the honors of war. 

The Call to Arms.— The effect of the attack 
on Sumter was electrical throughout the whole 
country, North and South. President Lincoln 
called for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and 
several times that number answered. Party dif- 
ferences were forgotten In the assault upon the 
flag, and the one supreme peril that threatened 
the Union. President Davis Issued a call for 
thirty-five thousand Confederate volunteers, and 
the Southern people responded as one man to 
repel the Invasion of their homes by Northern 
troops. 

Other States Secede. — The area of secession at 
first included only South Carolina, Georgia, and 
the Gulf States. It would probably have been 
confined to that region had not President Lincoln 
forced the Issue upon other Southern States by 
ordering out their mllltia to assist In putting 
down the Confederacy. The Northern States 
cheerfully obeyed, but Virginia, North Carolina, 
Tennessee, and Arkansas refused on the ground 
that the Federal Government had no right to 
coerce a sovereign State. Since they could not 
remain neutral, these States proceeded to join 
the Confederacy, which by June, 1861, num- 



SECESSION 221 

bered eleven States. After the accession of Vir- 
ginia the Confederate capital was moved from 
Montgomery to Richmond. 

The people in the western part of Virginia 
were not in sympathy with secession, and re- 
fused to go into the Confederacy. They formed 
a State government of their own, and were ad- 
mitted into the Union In 1863 as the State of 
West Virginia. 

The Confederacy made strong efforts to gain 
the four remaining slave States. But Delaware 
contained scarcely any secessionists. Maryland, 
Kentucky, and Missouri were divided in their 
sympathies, and sent many brave volunteers into 
both armies, but as these States were under Fed- 
eral military control throughout the war it Is 
doubtful if they could have seceded, even had 
the majority of the people been so Inclined. 

The Confederate Constitution was very similar 
to that of the United States, which Is a strong 
proof that the Southern people were really at- 
tached to the institutions of their fathers. There 
were some points of difference. The Executive 
was to be elected for a term of six years, and 
was not to be eligible for reelection. Members 
of the Cabinet were to have a voice in Congress 
In matters which pertained to their departments. 



222 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

A protective tariff was declared Illegal, and the 
principle of State sovereignty was upheld — con- 
structions for which the South had always con- 
tended. State legislatures had power to Impeach 
officials of the Confederate Government acting 
within the State. 

The Motive and the Argument of Secession. — 
Although the slave power had been the most 
zealous advocate of disunion, it comprised only 
a small fraction of the white population of the 
South. Slavery precipitated the Civil War, but 
it was not the fundamental cause of that terri- 
ble struggle. There were few slaves in North 
Carolina, and fewer in Tennessee. These States 
would not have joined the Confederacy if sla- 
very had been the vital issue. The Confederate 
Constitution expressly forbade the reopening of 
the African slave-trade. Mr. Davis and other 
leaders declared that slavery would not last 
forever. The magnificent popular enthusiasm, 
which swept and surged like a tidal wave over 
North and South for four long and bloody years, 
was not excited either by the desire of the North 
to free the negro or of the South to perpetuate 
his servitude. Mr. Lincoln In his Inaugural ad- 
dress expressly denied that he had either the 
intention or the lawful right to interfere with 



SECESSION 223 

slavery In the States where it already existed, and 
said nothing about putting an end to it in the 
territories, upon which his party had insisted. 
He even went so far as to advocate an amend- 
ment to the Constitution making slavery per- 
petual; not because he approved of the institu- 
tion, but because he was willing to do anything 
to save the Union. At the same time he let the 
South understand that the Federal Government 
would resist secession, by force if necessary. 

To discover the real and underlying cause of 
the Civil War we must look elsewhere than to 
slavery. We must remember that the South 
had always held to the conviction that the States 
were superior to the nation ; the nation was the 
creature of the States, it came into existence by 
their will, and how could the thing that was 
created be superior to its creator? And if the 
nation was inferior to the State, then the Con- 
stitution, which was the law of the nation, could 
not be taken as the measure of State rights. Ac- 
cording to this view, if a State decided that it 
would be better off out of the Union than In it, 
it had a perfect right to withdraw. 

This was the principle for which the Revolu- 
tionary fathers had contended, and which the 
Declaration of Independence had asserted. The 



224 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

same view had prevailed in the North itself up 
to i860. The Legislature of Massachusetts In 
1802 threatened to secede if the Jefferson ad- 
ministration should purchase Louisiana. A con- 
vention of the New England States, meeting in 
Hartford In 18 14 to oppose the war with Eng- 
land, had proposed secession because they could 
not have their own way in national affairs. New 
York, Rhode Island, and Virginia came Into the 
Union on the express condition that they could 
withdraw whenever they might choose to do so. 
The abolitionists constantly advocated the seces- 
sion of the free States rather than live under a 
flag which sanctioned the curse of slavery. 

But gradually the great mass of Northern 
people had become converted to the national 
Ideal expressed In Jackson's fiery challenge, 
" The Union, it must and shall he preserved^ 
The thrilling peroration of Webster's reply to 
Hayne, " Liberty and Union, now and forever, 
one and inseparable^'''' had been recited in every 
school-house In the North. Their appeal to the 
popular heart had roused the sentiment of 
patriotism and given birth to the pride of na- 
tionality. When the stars and stripes fell from 
the bastions of Sumter thousands of Northern 
men rushed to the defence of the Union, which 



SECESSION 225 

the eloquence of Webster and the example of 
Jackson had taught them to love and reverence. 
In the South the warlike preparations of the 
Government were regarded as the expression of 
a tyrannical purpose to invade the homes and 
destroy the liberties of a free people. They 
could not see why they had not as clear a right 
to withdraw from the Federal Union as the 
colonies had to withdraw from the Empire of 
Great Britain in 1776. When the Federal 
troops marched into the South these people were 
compelled to choose between their State — to 
which they had always been taught that their 
allegiance was first due — and the nation, which 
represented to them only an enemy. The men 
who filled the Confederate armies were no less 
patriots than the soldiers of the Union. It was 
a difference between patriotism to the State and 
patriotism to the nation. The North fought for 
federal government, the South for local gov- 
ernment; the North to preserve the Union, the 
South to defend its homes. Slavery simply hap- 
pened to be the concrete issue over which these 
two hostile theories came into collision. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-65 

THE probabilities were from the start 
strongly against the success of the 
Confederacy. The heroism of its 
people could not be surpassed, but the South 
was sadly lacking In those resources of wealth 
and Industry without which no war can long be 
sustained by any people, however determined. 

The Belligerents Compared. — The Confederacy 
numbered eleven States, with a white population 
of less than five and a half millions. It had few 
railroads or ships, and no manufactures of any 
sort. Slavery had confined the South to the 
single pursuit of agriculture, and had prevented 
the development of other Industries. With the 
exception of plantation products, It was depend- 
ent upon the Northern States and upon Europe 
for everything It used or needed. 

The North, on the contrary, had plenty of 
money, a flourishing foreign commerce, and In- 
dustries of every kind, which made it self-sup- 
226 



THE CIVIL WAR 227 

porting and independent of the rest of the 
world. It had numerous railroads for the trans- 
portation of troops and supplies. With Its pop- 
ulation of twenty-two millions It could put 
immense armies In the field without draining 
shops, factories, or farms of necessary hands. 

The Federal Plan of War.— The military and 
naval plan of campaign acted upon by the Fed- 
eral Government throughout the war was this: 
First, to surround the Confederacy with armies 
and navies and attack It on all sides; second, to 
starve It into submission by a close blockade of 
the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, which would shut 
it off from the markets of Europe. 

The operations of the war covered an im- 
mense area — from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
Mississippi River, from the Border States to the 
Gulf of Mexico — but most of the fighting took 
place in Virginia. 

Confederate Victories in the East— Neither side 
at first appreciated or understood the heroism 
and determination of the other. The general 
opinion of the North was that the " rebellion " 
would be over in a few weeks. Southern orators 
boasted that one Confederate could whip ten 
" Yankees." Few realized how vast the forces, 
how terrible the cost, how tragic the consequences 



228 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

would be. Even the gallant thousands who 
marched to the stirring strains of " John 
Brown's Body " or " Dixie " could not foresee 
the desperate trial of blood and battle. 

Bull Run. — In the east, the Federal design 
was to capture Richmond, the Confederate capi- 
tal. The eastern campaign centred mainly in 
Virginia, and until 1863 the Confederates were 
generally successful. 

The first Important battle of the war oc- 
curred near the city of Washington, at Manas- 
sas, or Bull Run, July 21, 1861.* General 
McDowell, the Union commander, was ordered 
to proceed against Richmond. His army was 
composed for the greater part of raw recruits 
who had never been under fire. About thirty- 
five miles from Washington he was met by a 
Confederate force under Generals Beauregard 
and Joseph E. Johnston, who utterly routed the 
Union Army and sent It flying back to Wash- 
ington. 

McClellan and the Army of the Potomac. — The 
disaster at Bull Run aroused the over-confident 

* The hostile armies often called the battles of the Civil 
War by different names. Bull Run is the name of a creek 
that flowed near the battle-field; Manassas is the name of the 
railroad station. 



THE CIVIL WAR 229 

North to the seriousness of the war. General 
George B. McClellan was appointed to the chief 
command of the army. He had been successful 
in driving the Confederates out of West Vir- 
ginia, and great things were expected of him. 

The winter of 1861-62 was spent by McClel- 
lan in organizing the Army of the Potomac. In 
a few months he had completely transformed 
the untrained recruits Into a magnificent army 
of two hundred thousand men. The difficulties 
of his task were enormous, and his services to 
the Union incalculable. The people, the news- 
papers, and the Government criticised him be- 
cause he did not fight Immediately. They failed 
to realize the Impossibility of using to advan- 
tage a mass of inexperienced, undisciplined men. 
The administration never gave him a free hand, 
and he was constantly embarrassed by the med- 
dlesome Interference of Edwin M. Stanton, the 
Secretary of War. 

Failure of the Movement Against Richmond. — 
In the spring of 1862 McClellan was ordered 
to move against Richmond. The army was 
transported by water to Fortress Monroe, from 
whence it was to proceed up the peninsula to 
the Confederate capital. McClellan was con- 
fronted by two of the ablest generals of the Con- 



230 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

federacy, Joseph E. Johnston and " Stonewall " 
Jackson.* At the battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven 
Pines, the Union forces retrieved the disaster of 
Bull Run by scoring their first victory. General 
Johnston was wounded, and forced for a time 
to leave the service. He was succeeded In the 
command of the Army of Northern Virginia by 
Robert E. Lee, the greatest of all the Confed- 
erate generals, and the most chivalrous figure In 
the history of the South; a character of tran- 
scendent purity and worth In whom neither 
friend nor foe has ever found a flaw.f 

The military skill of Lee proved too great for 
his antagonist. McClellan got within four miles 
of Richmond, but In the Seven Days' Battles the 
Union Army was defeated. McClellan was re- 
moved, and the Army of the Potomac was 

* Called "Stonewall" because of the rocklike manner in 
which he held at bay a Federal force at the first battle of 
Bull Run. 

t General Lee was born in Virginia in 1807. He was the 
son of "Light-horse Harry" Lee of Revolutionary fame. 
At the outbreak of the Civil War Robert E. Lee was con- 
sidered the ablest officer in the United States Army, and was 
offered the chief command of the Union forces. Lee was 
one of the many Southerners who did not approve of secession 
as a policy, but when Virginia joined the Confederacy he 
considered it his duty to follow the lead of his State. The 
worth of his name alone to the Southern cause was beyond 
computation. 



THE CIVIL WAR 231 

placed under the command of General John 
Pope, who had made a reputation In the western 
campaign. But at the second battle of Bull Run 
(August 26, 1862) Pope was so badly worsted 
by Stonewall Jackson that McClellan was rein- 
stated. 

The Merrimac and the Monitor. — All the im- 
portant battles of the Civil War occurred on 
the land. The navy rendered able assistance to 
the Union cause, but Its services were chiefly 
valuable In enforcing the blockade of Southern 
ports. One naval engagement, however. Is of 
particular Interest; not because It affected the 
outcome of the struggle between North and 
South, but on account of the great change It 
wrought In methods of naval warfare through- 
out the world. It took place just before McClel- 
lan undertook the Peninsular Campaign. 

The United States Navy at the outbreak of the 
Civil War consisted entirely of wooden ships. 
In 1 861 the Confederates raised the hulk of the 
Merrimac, a Federal steamship that had been 
sunk off Norfolk, and covered it with an Iron 
sheath. 

On March 8, 1862, the Merrimac, armed 
with fifteen guns, steamed out to Hamp- 
ton Roads, where several of the finest United 



232 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

States war-ships were anchored. The Congress^ 
a fifty-gun frigate, and the Cumberland^ z. 
lighter vessel, carrying thirty guns, aided by the 
Federal batteries, trained their heaviest fire upon 
the Merrimac. But the missiles rebounded from 
her iron roof like rubber. Waiting until she got 
within easy range, the Merrimac poured a vol- 
ley into both vessels, then, driving her iron prow 
with terrific force against the side of the Cum- 
berland^ sent that unfortunate craft to the 
bottom with all her crew. The Congress 
continued to fight until obliged to surren- 
der, when she was burned by the crew of the 
Merrimac. The iron-clad then retired, expect- 
ing to return the next day and finish the remain- 
ing ships. 

The news was flashed over the wires and set 
the North in a panic. It looked as though the 
blockade would now be broken and Northern 
coast cities ravaged, for no wooden vessel could 
stand before the Merrimac. But the terror of 
the North was short-lived. When the Merri- 
mac returned the next morning to complete the 
destruction begun the day before she found a 
strange craft awaiting her. It consisted of noth- 
ing more than a flat iron deck, almost flush with 
the water, upon which was a revolving iron turret 



THE CIVIL WAR 233 

with two guns.* The little Monitor proceeded 
to engage the Merrimac m a duel which lasted 
five hours. Neither one could make any impres- 
sion upon the iron armor of its adversary, 
though they fought most desperately at a dis- 
tance of only a few feet. But the Merrimac 
had met her match, and finally gave up the 
struggle and withdrew. 

The duel of the iron-clads proved that the day 
of wooden war-ships was past. The United 
States remodelled its navy, and the European 
nations, quick to seize a new advantage, fol- 
lowed. The iron navies of the world to-day 
trace their origin to the battle between the 
Merrimac and the Monitor in the American 
Civil War. 

Antietam. — General Lee decided to carry the 
war into Federal territory and attempt the capt- 
ure of Washington. He believed that South- 
ern sympathy in Maryland was strong enough 
to wrest that State from the control of the 

* When the Government at Washington learned that the 
Confederates were building the Merrimac it made a contract 
with John Ericsson, a Swedish inventor in New York, to 
build an iron-clad. The two vessels were finished almost at 
the same moment. The Monitor was at once ordered to 
Hampton Roads, but having a greater distance to go, arrived 
several hours after the Merrimac, 



234 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Union men if the Southern sympathizers should 
be encouraged by the presence of Confederate 
troops. 

The disastrous battle of Antietam, or Sharps- 
burg, followed the attempt of Lee to invade 
the loyal States. It was one of the blood- 
iest engagements of the war. Despite the fact 
that McClellan's army greatly outnumbered 
Lee's, the battle was indecisive, though the ad- 
vantage lay with McClellan, since Lee was 
forced for the time being to abandon the in- 
vasion of the North. McClellan was again re- 
moved, and Ambrose E. Burnside appointed in 
his place. 

Before taking leave of General McClellan 
it is only fair to say of him that no other Union 
general was beset by so many discouraging dif- 
ficulties. Several years after the war was over, 
General Lee, who ranks among the greatest 
masters of military science that the world has 
ever produced, was asked which of all his late 
opponents he considered the ablest. ** McClel- 
lan," replied Lee, '' by all odds." * 

General Grant's opinion of the first com- 
mander of the Army of the Potomac was thus 

* Recollections and Letters of General Lee, by Captain 
Robert E. Lee, New York, 1904, p. 416. 



THE CIVIL WAR 235 

expressed: *' The test applied to him would be 
terrible to any man, being made a major-gen- 
eral at the beginning of the war . . . and if he 
did not succeed, it was because the conditions of 
success were so trying. If McClellan had gone 
into the war as Sherman, Thomas, or Meade — 
had fought his way along and up — I have no 
reason to suppose that he would not have won 
as high distinction as any of us." * 

Emancipation. — In the spring and summer of 
1862 Congress passed three emancipation acts, 
liberating all slaves in the District of Columbia 
and in the territories, and all Confederate slaves 
who escaped to the Federal lines. Just after 
the battle of Antietam President Lincoln issued 
his famous Proclamation, warning the people of 
the Confederacy that unless they returned to 
the Union by the first day of January, 1863, he 
would declare their remaining slaves free. 

The President had long been urged by the ex- 
treme abolitionists to destroy slavery. But Lin- 
coln, though opposed to slavery in principle, had 
no desire to give the civil struggle In which he 
was engaged the appearance of a war in behalf 
of the negro. At the outset he had even been 

* Around the World with General Grant, by John 
Russell Young, vol. ii, p. 216. 



236 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

willing to make almost any concession which the 
slave interest of the South might demand in 
order to prevent disunion. His attitude had 
likewise been the attitude of the great majority 
of Northern people. But the President and 
other thinking men had come to realize that 
even if the Union cause should prevail, slavery, 
which had been so prominent a factor in pro- 
ducing and perpetuating sectional bitterness, 
would ultimately have to be destroyed. More- 
over, Europe was chafing under the blockade, 
and it was thought that the destruction of sla- 
very would appeal to the moral sense of foreign 
nations and prevent recognition of the Confed- 
eracy, which the Confederate Government was 
actively seeking. 

These motives, however, could not have justi- 
fied so sweeping an executive act as the destruc- 
tion of millions of dollars' worth of private 
property guaranteed by the Constitution. Nor 
is it likely that the President would have adopted 
such a policy on those grounds alone. But Mr. 
Lincoln was not only President of the United 
States; by the Constitution he was also com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy. In that 
capacity he possessed certain powers which as a 
mere civil ruler he could not have exercised. 



THE CIVIL WAR 237 

Now the slaves were the property of the enemy. 
Their labor was necessary to the maintenance of 
the Confederate armies. They raised and har- 
vested the crops which supported the soldiers in 
the field. To set them free would go a long 
way toward disabling the Confederacy. As a 
measure of mihtary necessity, therefore, Lincoln 
decided to liberate the slaves. 

No Confederate State returning to the Union, 
the Proclamation became operative January i, 
1863. It had no practical effect except when 
enforced by the armies, but as fast as Southern 
territory came under Federal control, slave-hold- 
ers were compelled to surrender their negroes. 
Many Southerners of their own accord liberated 
their slaves after January ist, among them Gen- 
eral Lee himself. 

It is a significant fact, showing the friendly 
ties that bound the master and his bondman, 
that many negroes refused to avail themselves 
of their freedom, but chose to remain with 
those whom they had so long been accustomed 
to serve. The truth is that the slave was not, 
in the vast majority of instances, the discon- 
tented and pathetic figure he is commonly be- 
lieved to have been. The number of those who 
enlisted in the Union armies was not large, con- 



238 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

sidering the inducements offered. Many ser- 
vants accompanied their masters to the scenes 
of war, and their devotion is a fact of univer- 
sal familiarity. All through the war the care 
of wife, children, and home was intrusted to 
the slave — a trust that was never betrayed. 

The Emancipation Proclamation did not 
apply to the border slave States which had re- 
mained in the Union. Such a measure might 
at that time have driven them into the Confed- 
eracy. Maryland and Missouri of their own 
accord abolished slavery by State action before 
the war was over. In Delaware and Kentucky 
it continued to exist until 1865, when the 
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution 
destroyed it forever throughout the United 
States. 

Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. — The chief 
fault found with McClellan was that he did 
not do enough fighting. General Burnside de- 
termined to be more aggressive, and to silence 
criticism at once by taking Richmond. But at 
the battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 
1862) the persistent Army of the Potomac was 
again defeated by Lee. Burnside was removed, 
and his command given to General Joseph 
Hooker. Now at last, thought the North, a 



THE CIVIL WAR 239 

man has been found who will take Richmond 
and end the war. 

Again failure mocked the heroic efforts of 
the Army of the Potomac. The Union forces, 
numbering ninety thousand, encountered forty- 
five thousand Confederates at Chancellorsvllle 
on May 2, 1863. For two days the veterans of 
Hooker challenged the desperate valor of the 
Army of Northern Virginia. But the tactics of 
Hooker proved no match for the superb gen- 
eralship of Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Chan- 
cellorsvllle added one more defeat to the dis- 
couraging record of Federal failures In the 
East. 

But the Confederacy paid a dear price for 
Its victory. Among the heroic Southern slain 
was Stonewall Jackson. While reconnoitring 
the Federal position at some distance from his 
troops, he and his escorts were mistaken by the 
Confederates for a body of Federal cavalry. 
The error was not discovered until too late. 
Jackson ranked with Lee as a master of war, 
and his death was an Irreparable loss to the 
Southern cause. He is said by military critics 
to have more nearly resembled Napoleon in 
genius and method than any other American 
commander. 



240 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Union Victories in the West. — If failure marked 
the course of the Union armies in the East, 
Union success had been almost uninterrupted in 
the West. 

The Federal object was to get control of 
the Mississippi Valley, which divided the west- 
ern half of the Confederacy into two parts, 
and which on account of its productiveness was 
the main granary of the Confederate armies. 
A few railroad lines connected Vicksburg, Mem- 
phis, Chattanooga, and Nashville, the chief 
towns of the Western Confederacy, with Rich- 
mond and with the Gulf of Mexico. The Con- 
federate line of defence was strengthened by 
fortifications on the Cumberland, the Tennessee, 
and the Mississippi rivers. The important 
points were to be attacked by armies moving 
down from the north with the cooperation of 
fleets, which were to take New Orleans and as- 
cend the Mississippi. 

There was not very much fighting in the West 
until 1862. The summer and fall of 1861 saw 
the Confederates driven out of Missouri, and 
Kentucky saved to the Union. 

When the campaign of 1862 opened there 
were two Union armies in the West, which 
shortly increased to four. The larger one num- 



THE CIVIL WAR 241 

bered one hundred thousand men, and was com- 
manded by General Buell. A subordinate force 
of fifteen thousand under Ulysses S. Grant was 
stationed at Cairo, 111. 

The Confederate armies of the West were 
under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston. 
The South expected much from this officer, who 
was recognized in military circles. North and 
South, as possessing extraordinary abilities, and 
who was considered by some, in these early days 
of the war, to be superior even to Lee. 

Forts Henry and Donelson and Island No. 10. — 
In February, 1862, General Grant took Fort 
Henry on the Tennessee, and ten days later re- 
ceived the surrender of Fort Donelson, which 
guarded the Cumberland. These victories gave 
the United States forces control of two of the 
principal water-ways of the South-west. The 
capture of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi by 
General Pope and the gun-boat fleet under Com- 
modore Foote followed in April, and the Con- 
federates were forced to form a new line of 
defence. 

Pittsburg Landing. — General Grant pressed on 
and camped at Pittsburg Landing on the Ten- 
nessee. Here he was attacked on the morn- 
ing of April 6th by Albert Sidney Johnston. A 



242 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

furious engagement ensued, which lasted two 
days. At first victory was with the Confeder- 
ates, but Grant was reenforced by Buell's army, 
and further aided by the gun-boats on the river. 
Johnston was killed, and a Union victory was 
the result. When Jefferson Davis heard of 
Johnston's death he endured a temporary spasm 
of despair. 

The battle of Pittsburg Landing Is often 
called the battle of Shiloh, after a church around 
which the heaviest fighting occurred. 

The Capture of New Orleans.— On April 25th 
Admiral Farragut's Gulf fleet, aided by a land 
force under General B. F. Butler, took the city 
of New Orleans and Its surrounding forts. 
This was a most Important achievement, since 
it put an end to Confederate control of the lower 
Mississippi. Two principal railroad centres, 
Corinth and Memphis, soon passed Into Fed- 
eral hands. With the exception of VIcksburg 
and Port Hudson, the Mississippi River was 
now under Federal control from New Orleans 
to Illinois. 

Vicksburg was besieged by General Grant In 
the spring of 1863. Joseph E. Johnston was 
now In command of all the Confederate forces 
of the South-west. His intention was to fight 



THE CIVIL WAR ^43 

Grant in the open field, and thus avoid a siege, 
which he knew Vicksburg would be unable to 
resist. But General Pemberton, who was in 
command at Vicksburg, disobeyed his orders 
and decided to stand a siege. General Grant 
succeeded in dividing the forces of Johnston 
and Pemberton, so that neither one could help 
the other. After six weeks, during which the 
Federal gun-boats on the river kept up a terrific 
bombardment of the city, Vicksburg was blown 
up by powder-mines which Grant had caused 
to be constructed beneath the fortifications of 
the city. On July 4th its defenders surrendered 
to General Grant. Five days later Port Hudson 

fell- ... . 

The whole Mississippi Valley, with the ex- 
ception of Chattanooga, was now under Federal 
control. The Confederacy was cut in twain. It 
was no longer possible to bring Western cattle 
and grain to feed the Confederate armies in the 
East. From now on each half of the Confed- 
eracy must fight without help from the other. 

Gettysburg.-We left the Army of the Poto- 
mac broken by the defeat at Chancellorsville, 
and the Confederates on the high tide of sue- 

cess. 

On the day before the fall of Vicksburg 



244 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Army of Northern Virginia suffered its first 
great reverse. Public opinion at the South, 
elated by victory^ demanded an invasion of the 
North. General Lee decided to carry the war 
into Pennsylvania. The invasion caused great 
alarm in the North. Lee came up through 
Maryland to Chambersburg with his main army. 
Detached commands held York and Carlisle, and 
came within a few miles of Harrisburg. From 
Chambersburg Lee turned east to attack Phila- 
delphia. General Hooker had been succeeded 
by General George G. Meade, a commander of 
great ability. Meade moved up between Lee 
and the threatened city of Philadelphia. The 
two armies met at Gettysburg. Here, on July 
I St, 2d, and 3d was fought not only the decisive 
battle of the war, but one of the most celebrated 
battles in the history of the world. Deeds of 
amazing heroism were performed by both 
armies, but Meade had the advantage of larger 
forces and superior position. Moreover, certain 
vital orders of Lee were tardily executed. When 
the sun set at the close of the third day it sym- 
bolized the wane of Confederate fortune. 

The repulse of Lee's invasion and the fall of 
Vicksburg marked the turning-point of the war. 

From Gettysburg Lee retreated to Virginia, 



THE CIVIL WAR 245 

slowly followed by the Army of the Potomac. 
The two forces took position on opposite banks 
of the Rapidan River. Here they remained 
through the following winter without much 
lighting until the spring of 1864, when Grant 
took command of all the armies of the United 
States, and the llfe-and-death struggle began. 

Chickamauga. — After the fall of VIcksburg 
there still remained In Confederate possession 
eastern Tennessee and Georgia. 

At Chickamauga, a few miles from the city 
of Chattanooga, the Confederates were attacked 
by General Rosecrans on September 19, 1863. 
After one of the most desperate battles of the 
war, lasting two days, the Union Army was de- 
feated. It would have been utterly routed had 
it not been for the heroic stand of General 
George H. Thomas, whose command covered 
the retreat of the fleeing army. For this achieve- 
ment General Thomas won the sobriquet of 
" the Rock of Chickamauga." 

Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. — 
The Union Army retreated to Chattanooga, 
where It was besieged for two months by the 
Confederates. All eyes were turned to General 
Grant, the hero of VIcksburg, who had been 
placed in command of all the Federal armies of 



246 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the West, and who now came to the relief of 
Chattanooga. The Confederates were strongly 
intrenched on Lookout Mountain and Mission- 
ary Ridge. By sudden and heroic assault up 
the mountain-side the Union soldiers succeeded 
In carrying both of these apparently Impregnable 
positions. Part of the fighting occurred so high 
up that the combatants were hidden by the 
clouds, so that the engagement at Lookout 
Mountain is often called *' the battle above the 
clouds." 

The victory at Chattanooga (November 
24th-25th) completed the Union conquest of 
the Mississippi Valley. 

The Blockade. — Far more effective than the 
work of Northern armies In crushing the Con- 
federacy was the blockade. 

" Cotton is king," boasted the South at the 
beginning of the war, meaning that Its staple 
product ruled the Industrial world. The South 
believed in 1861 that the Federal Government 
could not continue the war without the support 
of the industrial Interests of the North, and that 
this support would not be given when the manu- 
facturers and the merchants found that they 
were unable to procure cotton. It also be- 
lieved the forced interruption of foreign trade 



THE CIVIL WAR 247 

would cause such loss abroad that European 
governments would compel the United States to 
raise the blockade. 

In both of these anticipations the South was 
doomed to disappointment. The cotton manu- 
facturers were only a fraction of the industrial 
interests of the North. In spite of their In- 
juries, the Federal Government never slackened 
its efforts to compel the submission of the South. 
Neither did Europe Intervene, though Incon- 
venienced by the blockade. The truth was, that 
badly as Europe needed Southern cotton, the 
South needed European markets still more. Eu- 
rope could exist without the South, but the 
South could not exist without Europe. Only 
from Europe could military arms, clothing, and 
other necessaries be procured. 

Within three months after the outbreak of 
war the Confederacy was surrounded by fleets 
and armies which pressed closer and closer until 
the power of resistance was utterly destroyed. 

To evade the blockade, small and very swift 
vessels were built in Europe to carry military 
stores and other cargoes to Confederate ports 
In exchange for cotton. But as the war pro- 
ceeded It became Increasingly difficult to escape 
the vigilant United States cruisers. Trade of 



248 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

this sort amounted to very little. Before the 
war was over cotton was worth $2.50 a pound 
in Liverpool, while vast mountains of it rotted 
on the wharves of Southern ports at four cents 
a pound. Salt, which was worth $7.50 a ton in 
Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas and the 
nearest port for blockade runners, sold for 
$1,700 in gold at Richmond. Supplies of 
every sort became exhausted, and there was no 
way to replenish them. The spinning-wheels 
of farm and plantation were kept constantly 
at work turning out rough homespun clothing 
for the soldiers. Women of high social rank 
suffered the stress of poverty. Roasted rye 
took the place of coffee, persimmon seeds were 
utilized for buttons and thorns for pins. 

It was the blockade, not the armies of the 
North, that killed the Confederacy. Had the 
South had access to foreign markets it could 
never, in all probability, have been conquered. 

Confederate Finance. — An irredeemable paper 
currency made bad matters very much worse. 
All paper money is merely a promise to pay an 
equal amount of gold or silver on demand of 
the bearer. It Is good only as long as it can 
be redeemed in standard coin. The entire 
specie revenue of the Confederate Government 



THE CIVIL WAR 249 

during Its four years' existence aggregated only 
about $28,000,000. The Government was 
therefore obhged to rely more and more upon 
paper money, which dropped In value as the 
chances of Confederate success grew weaker. 

The scarcity of goods of every description 
and the cheapness of money combined to make 
fabulous prices. Before the war was over one 
dollar in gold was worth one hundred dollars 
of paper money. Corn-meal sold for $80 a 
bushel, a barrel of flour cost $1,000, a spool 
of thread $20, a pound of sugar $75, and a 
newspaper $1. 

The Beginning of the Final Struggle. — In the 
spring of 1864 General Grant, whose victories 
had made him the most celebrated of all the 
Union commanders, was made Lieutenant Gen- 
eral of the Armies of the United States, In the 
hope that with a free hand and full power he 
would be able to end the war. 

There were now only two large Confederate 
armies in the field; the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, which we left in winter quarters on the 
Rapldan, and the Southern Army under Joseph 
E. Johnston In Georgia. 

Grant's plan was to attack both armies si- 
multaneously and keep them so busy that neither 



250 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

one of them could help the other. To this end 
he sent General W. T. Sherman, who had 
won renown at Shiloh and In the VIcksburg 
and Chattanooga campaigns, against Johnston, 
while he himself directed the movements of the 
Army of the Potomac, commanded by Meade. 

Sherman Takes Atlanta. — General Sherman 
started from Chattanooga In June with one 
hundred thousand men. His orders from Grant 
were to take Atlanta, an Important railroad 
centre and chief base of military supplies. 

Throughout his entire campaign there was 
comparatively little fighting. Johnston's force 
was small and he desired to avoid direct battle 
until he could risk It with advantage. Both com- 
manders exhibited remarkable skill. But Jef- 
ferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, 
disliked Johnston and made the vital mistake 
of removing him from command, putting In 
his place General Hood. This officer was a 
bold fighter, but not the equal of Johnston or 
Sherman In efficiency. After a strong but futile 
resistance Atlanta capitulated to Sherman (Sep- 
tember 2d). Hood then turned Into Tennessee 
hoping to draw Sherman after him. But Sher- 
man remained where he was and sent General 
Thomas, " the Rock of Chlckamauga," to take 



THE CIVIL WAR 251 

care of Hood. At the battle of Nashville (De- 
cember I5th-i6th) Thomas utterly destroyed 
the army of Hood. 

Grant and Lee. — While Sherman was en- 
gaged In the South, Grant was endeavoring 
to take Richmond. These final campaigns In 
Virginia against Lee were the fiercest and 
bloodiest of the war. The course of the Army 
of the Potomac lay through a vast region of 
forest and swamp known as the Wilderness. 
That army now numbered one hundred and fifty 
thousand and was constantly Increasing In size 
and In fighting strength. The Army of North- 
ern Virginia could muster only sixty thousand 
half-starved, ragged, worn-out men. 

Notwithstanding the disparity of forces, 
Grant's advance was ably resisted by Lee. The 
battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania 
(May 5th-i8th) were virtually Confederate 
victories, since Grant was continually forced to 
deviate from his contemplated line of advance. 
Still, changing his tactics, he slowly pushed 
toward Richmond. 

At Cold Harbor Grant encountered the 
strong centre of the Confederate defence. Af- 
ter a heroic but futile charge, during which 
twelve thousand Union soldiers lost their lives 



252 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

In thirty minutes, Grant was again obliged to 
change his plan of attack. He determined to 
move upon Richmond from the south. But here 
his advance was blocked by the fortifications 
of Petersburg, within which Lee, anticipating 
Grant's purpose, had moved his army. As the 
defences were too strong to be carried by assault, 
Grant settled down for a prolonged siege In 
June, 1864. 

The Presidential Election of 1864.— While 
Grant was besieging Petersburg and Sherman 
was about to undertake his famous march 
" from Atlanta to the sea," the country was 
called upon to choose a President. Lincoln had 
many enemies in his own party who desired to 
prevent his renomination. But his strength 
with the people prevailed over the plots of poli- 
ticians, who were compelled to nominate him 
against their will. Andrew Johnson, a Demo- 
crat from Tennessee, was named for Vice-presi- 
dent in the hope of drawing the Democratic 
vote. Johnson had attracted wide attention In 
i860 because he was the only Southern Senator 
who refused to follow his State. 

The Democrats tried to regain control of the 
Government on a platform which declared that 
the war was a failure and advocated a peace con- 



THE CIVIL WAR 253 

ventlon of all the States for the purpose of 
reestablishing the Union by common consent. 
Their candidate was General McClellan, who, 
however, repudiated the sentiment of his party 
that the war was a failure. 

Many Democrats voted for Lincoln, who 
was overwhelmingly reelected, McClellan carry- 
ing only New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky. 

The Fall of the Confederacy.— We left Gen- 
eral Sherman in undisputed possession of At- 
lanta. After burning the city he started for the 
coast, a distance of three hundred miles, leaving 
in his wake a belt of desolation sixty miles 
wide. There was no hostile army to check 
his advance. Railroads, public property, and 
growing crops were destroyed that the enemy's 
power of resistance might be the more effect- 
ually and speedily broken. Reaching Savannah, 
he started north to join Grant in demolishing 
the army of Lee. 

In the meantime General Lee, who had been 
given full power,, had recalled Joseph E. John- 
ston. This officer collected the fragments of the 
scattered Western forces, which he formed Into 
an army to resist the advance of Sherman. 

While Grant with iron purpose was hammer- 
ing away at Petersburg, General Sheridan was 



254 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

despatched with a large cavalry force to ravage 
the Shenandoah Valley, the last remaining Con- 
federate granary. Sheridan executed his com- 
mission with thoroughness, destroying mills, 
barns, crops, railroads, canals, and bridges, and 
defeating a Confederate army under General 
Early, a detachment of which had invaded 
Pennsylvania and burned Chambersburg. 

For ten months Petersburg withstood the 
efforts of Grant. At last Its weakened forces 
could hold out no longer. In a final desperate 
assault, Sunday, April 2d, the city was taken. 
The Confederate capital was now without pro- 
tection and the next day the goal of four years' 
heroic effort was occupied by Union troops. 
Jefferson Davis and his cabinet fled to Georgia.* 

General Lee's purpose now was to escape 
with his army In the night, join Johnston in 
North Carolina and offer battle to Sherman 
before he could be reenforced by Grant. But 
the swarming Federals cut off Lee's retreat and 
his handful of Confederate soldiers found 
themselves surrounded. Even then these in- 

* Davis was captured a few weeks later and imprisoned 
in Fortress Monroe for two years. He was indicted for 
treason but was released on the bond of three Northern gentle- 
men. In 1868 Davis and other prominent leaders were par- 
doned by the President of the United States. 



THE CIVIL WAR 255 

trepid men were eager to fight. Lee, however, 
realizing the folly of further resistance and un- 
willing to sacrifice life to prolong a hopeless 
struggle, gave up. At Appomattox Court-house 
on April 9, 1865, the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia laid down its arms. On the 26th Johnston 
surrendered to Sherman. 

Both conquerors proved themselves to be as 
generous in the hour of victory as they had been 
heroic and skilful in battle. The starving Con- 
federates were supplied with rations from the 
plentiful stores of their victors and allowed to 
return to their homes free of penalties after 
promising to obey the laws and not to take up 
arms against the United States. No celebra- 
tions were indulged in by the triumphant Union 
soldiers and no note of exultation mocked the 
disappointment of their vanquished foes. 

The Armies Disband.— In April, 1865, the 
Union armies numbered over a million veterans, 
equipped, disciplined, organized, and of superb 
fighting efficiency. Prophets of evil said that 
they had been bred to the love of war and camp 
life and would never again be contented to re- 
sume the employments of peace. And yet in an 
incredibly short time this army completely dis- 
appeared. There was no rioting, no disorder. 



256 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

As quietly as these men had left their homes 
to fight for the flag, they came back and once 
more took their places at the work-bench, be- 
hind the plough, in the factory, and the law- 
office. 

The voluntary return of this vast army of 
conquerors to the pursuits of industry was a 
splendid vindication of American citizenship and 
proved that in spite of gigantic military suc- 
cesses we were still a peace-loving people. 

Pathetic in its melancholy contrast was the 
home-coming of the Confederate soldier. He 
found a ruined farm, a plantation run to waste, 
a land swept by the ravages of war. Men who 
had once been rich were now reduced to pov- 
erty. With courage never surpassed on the 
battle-field these vanquished heroes in gray ac- 
cepted defeat without a murmur and began life 
anew, resolved that toil should know no end 
until desolation should give place to plenty and 
the desert blossom as the rose. 

The Northern and Southern soldiers were 
alike Americans, equally brave and equally 
honest. Well may we take a national pride in 
their splendid records though they fought in 
opposing ranks. 

Results of the War. — No mere combat of 



THE CIVIL WAR 257 

arms can ever settle which side of a disputed 
question Is morally right and which is morally 
wrong. But it can and does remove certain 
questions from all possibility of further quarrel 
by proving to the defeated side the futility of 
its purpose. 

The Civil War determined forever that the 
principle of secession, whether right or wrong, 
could never win triumphant recognition; not 
only because the Federal Government is too 
strong to be resisted, but because the great 
majority of the American people are convinced 
that their prosperity is dependent upon condi- 
tions which can exist only by a close political 
union in which the States are subordinate to the 
nation. The rights of the States are Important 
and must be maintained, but the measure of 
their extent must be the Federal Constitution. 
The sovereignty of the States over the nation 
is quite another matter ; that was removed from 
the field of political discussion by the war and 
will never be reasserted. The Southern people 
have accepted this decision as final, and there 
are to-day none more loyal to the flag of our 
common country. 

The war also took the slavery question out 
of politics by destroying the institution itself; 



258 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

first by legislative and executive action, then by 
the Thirteenth Amendment. The destruction 
of slavery, while at first entailing great loss upon 
the South, proved an ultimate blessing. It has 
led to the opening of mines and the establish- 
ment of factories, both of which were impossible 
under the regime of slavery. The South is un- 
excelled in natural resources. These are being 
rapidly developed and in course of time its 
wealth must equal or surpass that of any other 
section. 

The Civil War, then, solved the two prob- 
lems of secession and slavery. But it created 
other difficulties more tragic than the war it- 
self and entailing far greater bitterness. 



CHAPTER XIX 

RECONSTRUCTION 

NO sooner had the Confederacy fallen 
than the national Government was 
confronted with the perplexing ques- 
tion, What shall he done with the Southern 
States? The Republican Party was completely 
dominant and its decision would be final. But 
on this point the party was not united. 

President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, Grant, 
Sherman, and other generals favored admitting 
the Southern States at once to full representa- 
tion in the Government, conditioned on their 
acquiescence in the results of the war. Actuated 
by the spirit of Lincoln's noble motto, " with 
charity for all, with malice toward none," they 
said in substance: The South was sincere in its 
devotion to the Confederacy. But the war is 
over and the South is defeated. Slavery is 
abolished, the Union is saved. We can afford 
to be generous, but we cannot afford to be un- 
just. The surest way to establish fraternal 
259 



26o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

relations with our late foes is to let by-gones 
be by-gones and devote our united effort to 
building up our common country. 

This was also the attitude of the soldiers and 
of the great majority of Northern people. 

The strongest and ablest opponent of this 
liberal policy was Thaddeus Stevens of Penn- 
sylvania, Republican leader of the House 
of Representatives. Stevens declared that the 
South was nothing more than conquered ter- 
ritory to be disposed of in the way that would 
best suit the purposes of its conquerors and 
benefit the Republican Party. In this design 
and policy he had the effective cooperation of 
Charles Sumner, the distinguished abolitionist 
Senator from Massachusetts, and the support of 
a Congressional majority. 

The Assassination of Lincoln. — Before the Gov- 
ernment could determine upon any policy, an 
event occurred which plunged the country into 
blackest gloom and destroyed all possibiHty of 
a fraternal adjustment of this delicate matter. 

On the evening of April 14th President Lin- 
coln was shot through the brain while attend- 
ing a play in Ford's Theatre in Washington. 
The assassin was John Wilkes Booth, an actor, 
and chief conspirator in an infamous plot to 



RECONSTRUCTION 261 

murder the President and his Cabinet. The 
blow fell with crushing force upon the North, 
which had learned to admire Abraham Lincoln 
for his integrity and common-sense and to love 
him for his magnanimous and sympathetic na- 
ture. Born under the humblest conditions he 
had risen by sheer force of surpassing character 
to be the foremost ruler of his time and one of 
the most impressive figures in the history of 
mankind. 

Thaddeus Stevens Supreme. — The assassina- 
tion of Lincoln was the worst calamity that 
could have befallen the prostrate South. Out- 
side of its own borders he was the best and 
wisest friend it had in a crisis when a powerful 
advocate was most needed. So strong was Lin- 
coln in the confidence of the Northern people 
that Congress probably could not have offered 
effective opposition to his Southern policy had 
he remained at the helm of state. 

The atrocious deed was ascribed by the 
Northern press to the instigation of Jefferson 
Davis and the Confederate leaders. The whole 
North called for summary and speedy pun- 
ishment. It is now known that the crime 
originated in the wicked hearts and disor- 
dered brains of a few desperadoes. Instead of 



262 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

rejoicing, mass-meetings were held in South- 
ern cities, where indignant sorrow voiced un- 
feigned regret. 

But Northern passion, inflamed by rumor and 
suspicion, demanded vengeance. The death 
of Lincoln removed the only check upon the 
purpose of the Stevens radicals who came into 
full control of the Republican Party and of the 
nation. 

Andrew Johnson, who now stepped into Lin- 
coln's place, is the most striking example of 
rapid promotion from obscurity to exalted polit- 
ical rank which the history of our country 
affords. He was born In North Carolina, of 
the despised '' poor white '' stock, and migrated 
to Tennessee in his boyhood. He never at- 
tended school and could not even write his name 
until after he was married. A tailor by trade, 
he entered politics and served in many dis- 
tinguished offices. He possessed great natural 
ability and courage, but he was deficient in tact, 
and being a Southern Democrat he never had 
the confidence of the party which elected him. 

The President and Congress. — When Andrew 
Johnson became President of the United States 
Congress was not In session. The new Presi- 
dent started to carry Into effect the generous 



RECONSTRUCTION 263 

policy of his predecessor. In a few weeks the 
Southern States were reorganized on lines em- 
bodying the ideals of Abraham Lincoln. Noth- 
ing was said about negro suffrage. Political 
power remained In the hands of white men.* 

The President, however, reckoned without 
Congress and its powerful leader. When that 
body met in December, 1865, the Southern 
Senators and Representatives who had been 
elected under Johnson's plan were refused ad- 
mission to Congress. The work of the Presi- 
dent was ignored and Congress, under the 
merciless direction of Thaddeus Stevens, put 
into operation an altogether different and drastic 
plan of reconstruction. 

The Fourteenth Amendment. — In South Caro- 
lina, Mississippi, and Louisiana the black popu- 
lation exceeded the white. These States, fore- 
seeing the peril sure to arise In Southern 
communities from the presence of a great mass 
of ignorant and lazy negroes without legal re- 

* Andrew Johnson, unlike Lincoln, was exceedingly bitter 
against the prominent Confederate leaders and refused to 
include them in the general pardon extended to the rank and 
file of Southern people. This was probably owing to the 
traditional and ingrained jealousy of the "poor white" for 
the aristocratic class. Subsequently Mr. Johnson changed 
his attitude toward the Southern leaders and became more 
lenient. 



264 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

straint and unable to realize the obligations 
which freedom imposed, passed laws requiring 
idle negroes to work. Some of the laws were 
very severe. 

Congress interpreted the action of these States 
to signify a deliberate purpose to reduce the 
" freedmen," as the emancipated slaves were 
called, to a condition of dependence lipon the 
whites which would approximate their former 
servitude, and thus practically nullify the 
Thirteenth Amendment, which had forbid- 
den the reestablishment of slavery. Congress 
then proposed another amendment to the 
Constitution, which would place the freedmen 
under the protection of the Federal Govern- 
ment. 

The Fourteenth Amendment defined citizen- 
ship in such a way as to include the negroes, and 
then forbade any State to abridge the privileges 
of citizens or to deprive them of life, liberty, 
or property without due process of law. When 
the proposed amendment was submitted to the 
people the Northern and Border States ratified 
it, but the Southern States, with the exception of 
Tennessee, rejected it. 

The Reconstruction Acts. — In refusing to give 
their assent to a legislative proposition unani- 



RECONSTRUCTION 265 

mously disapproved by the judgment of their 
section the Southern States acted strictly with- 
in their Constitutional right. But Thaddeus 
Stevens and the Republican leaders resented this 
independent attitude on the part of the con- 
quered South. 

Desiring above all things the permanent tri- 
umph of their party these men proceeded to 
carry Into effect a plan which was nothing 
less than conspiracy against the liberties of the 
Southern people and the rights of the South- 
ern States, and a plain subversion of the Con- 
stitution itself. They resolved to take from 
the educated, intelligent white men of the South, 
trained for two hundred and fifty years In 
the science of government, all political rights 
and power and give the South over to the 
control of a vast and irresponsible horde of ne- 
groes, all of them Ignorant and inexperienced 
and many of them vicious. The whites, who 
were Democrats almost to a man, were to 
be disfranchised, and the freedmen given the 
ballot. 

By this measure the Republican Party ex- 
pected to build up a negro organization which 
would transfer permanently the Southern States 
mto the Republican column and destroy the 



266 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Democratic Party beyond all possibility of res- 
urrection. Thaddeus Stevens openly declared 
such to be his purpose. 

To Insure complete success and to prevent the 
opposition which the Southern white people 
would naturally attempt, the United States 
Army was to take military possession of the 
entire region and support by force the experi- 
ment of negro rule. 

In 1867 Congress passed two acts by which 
the ten Southern States that had rejected the 
Fourteenth Amendment were divided Into Rve 
military districts and each district placed under 
an army officer who was to act In the capacity 
of military governor. This official was directed 
to hold an election for delegates to a State con- 
vention. A test oath was required which prac- 
tically debarred the whites and permitted only 
negroes to take part In the election. Each State 
convention must then frame a constitution which 
would extend the franchise to freedmen. If the 
ngw constitutions were approved by the colored 
voters and accepted by Congress the States 
would thereupon be admitted to the Union after 
their legislatures had ratified the Fourteenth 
Amendment. 

The President vetoed both reconstruction bills 



RECONSTRUCTION 267 

but Congress by an overwhelming vote passed 
them over his veto. 

The Fifteenth Amendment. — The Fourteenth 
Amendment became a part of the Constitution 
in 1868. But the Repubhcan leaders were not 
satisfied. Knowing that their party in the South 
depended wholly upon negro dominance, they 
feared that if the white Democrats should re- 
gain control of their States they would disfran- 
chise the negroes and make the South again 
Democratic. 

Another amendment was accordingly drafted 
with the intent of forever insuring negro suf- 
frage. It denied to Congress or to any State 
the power to disfranchise a man " on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servi- 
tude." The negro governments of the South 
ratified the Fifteenth Amendment, which became 
a part of the law of the land in 1870. 

Anarchy in the South. — It is now agreed by 
nearly all historians and statesmen that the re- 
constructive measures of Congress were a series 
of tragic blunders. They engendered a bitter- 
ness of feeling against the North which would 
have been impossible under the humane and 
generous policy of Lincoln or Johnson. Nor 
did they accomplish their purpose — which was 



268 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to make the South permanently Republican. 
Not one of the negro governments endured after 
the Federal troops, upon which they depended, 
were withdrawn. They were corrupt and scan- 
dalous beyond all precedent or parallel. The 
whole Ill-fated region was flooded with un- 
scrupulous adventurers from the North, called 
"carpet-baggers," who took advantage of the 
helplessness of the whites and the unfitness of 
the negro to fill the offices and grow rich on 
public plunder. The freedman was taught to 
rely for the vindication of his newly acquired 
political rights not upon the fruits of character 
but upon force bills and Federal bayonets. 

The States of the " black belt " fared worst. 
Governor Moses of South Carolina was a pro- 
fessional crook, whose photograph may be seen 
to-day in the Rogues' Gallery of New York. 
The South Carolina Legislature during a single 
session spent $350,000 for whiskey, cigars, and 
kindred luxuries for Its colored members. Tax- 
able values in this State dropped from $490,- 
000,000 In i860 to $184,000,000 in 1 87 1, 
while In the same period taxes Increased from 
less than $400,000 to $2,000,000. In South 
Carolina there were two hundred negro trial 
judges who could neither read nor write. 



RECONSTRUCTION 269 

At the close of Reconstruction the average 
debt of each State subjected to Its blasting 
regime was nearly five times as great as at the 
close of the Civil War — with nothing to show 
for it but demoralization and ruin. 

The Failure of Reconstruction.— Several addi- 
tional laws were passed by Congress designed 
to bolster up negro rule, but they were rendered 
ineffective or declared unconstitutional by the 
Supreme Court of the United States. 

Gradually the whites recovered control of 
their State governments. This was accom- 
plished largely by means of the Ku-Klux-Klan, 
a powerful secret fraternity which sprang up 
all over the South. Its members wore disguises 
and operated by night in armed bands. The 
huts or houses of the negro rulers were visited 
and the occupants taken out and flogged or else 
frightened with a show of " magic." Sometimes 
they were killed. The mysterious character of 
the fraternity appealed to the superstition of the 
negroes, who yielded at once. The Ku-Klux- 
Klan directed the same effective policy of in- 
timidation against the " carpet-baggers." At 
first its membership was confined to conservative 
men who were driven to these measures in nec- 
essary self-protection. Later It passed into the 



270 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

control of a different element, and was finally 
broken up by Federal marshals — but not until 
It had achieved its purpose, which was to save 
the civilization of the South. 

The Fourteenth Amendment was greatly 
weakened by several Supreme Court decisions, 
which limited its scope and confirmed the South- 
ern States in the possession of the powers of 
which Congress had tried to deprive them. 

The Fifteenth Amendment has likewise be- 
come a dead letter. The later State constitu- 
tions, drafted by white men, have practically 
disfranchised the negro. 

It is absolutely essential to the progress and 
welfare of the South that white men shall rule 
it. In no other way can its resources be devel- 
oped and its general advancement keep pace 
with the rest of the nation. Even the North 
now recognizes this fact and is no longer dis- 
posed to interfere in those problems which public 
opinion has acknowledged the South alone is 
competent to solve. 

The harsh and futile measures of the Repub- 
lican radicals not only dimmed the glory which 
their party had won by its successful conduct of 
the Civil War, but it resulted In committing the 
Southern whites almost unanimously to the sup- 



RECONSTRUCTION 271 

port of the Democratic Party; not primarily 
because Democratic policies were better suited 
to Southern Interests than Republican policies, 
but because the Republican Party was associated 
with the vindictive and disastrous experiment 
of negro rule. 

Since, however, the Republicans have given 
up serious thought of enforcing negro equality, 
It Is likely that their party will eventually com- 
mand a liberal Southern support on the strength 
of Its own merits. Already we can discover a 
definite movement In that direction, and the 
" solid South " shows signs of breaking up. 

Vast sums of money have been expended 
upon negro education. Part has been contrib- 
uted by Northern philanthropists, but by far the 
greater portion has been the voluntary gift of 
the Southern people out of their poverty. 

The Negro of To-day. — With the exception of 
an exceedingly small class of Intelligent and 
efficient colored people, the negro exhibits none 
of the results that forty years of freedom and 
Industrial opportunity under the tutelage of edu- 
cation are popularly supposed to have produced. 

The domestic and commercial requirements 
of slavery, necessitating as they did careful at- 
tention to hygiene and moral culture as well as 



272 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

a thorough training in the useful arts, produced 
a being in whom bodily strength was united to 
a considerable degree of moral virtue. But 
with the passing of slavery the beneficent and 
humanizing influence of white control disap- 
peared, with the consequence that the original 
elements of negro character, hopelessly rooted 
in countless centuries of jungle life, at once as- 
serted themselves, and have wrought sad havoc 
with the manhood and the prospects of the race. 

The overwhelming tendency to herd in cities, 
aggravated by a constitutional inability to resist 
the peculiar temptations of urban life, is having 
a rapidly disastrous effect upon both physical 
and moral character. The extraordinary pro- 
clivity of the negro to find his keenest enjoy- 
ment in sensual gratification, together with the 
entire absence of self-control, renders him the 
inevitable and easy prey of drunkenness, tuber- 
culosis, and those diseases most demoralizing 
to the soul and destructive to the body of man. 
His mortality has increased above one hundred 
per cent. 

Crime is alarmingly on the increase, not only 
in the region known as the " black belt," but 
throughout the entire area of the former slave 
States. Although the whites in the South out- 



RECONSTRUCTION 273 

number the blacks three to one, yet the latter 
furnish from eighty-five to ninety-three per cent 
of the convict class. Even In the city of Wash- 
ington, the colored " Mecca," the negroes fur- 
nish eighty-six per cent of the criminals, while 
comprising less than one-third of the population. 
And the fact of most tragic import is that this 
amazing criminal activity is almost wholly the 
work of the generations born In freedom and 
whose education has thus far cost $150,000,000. 
The productive capacity of the negro Is 
everywhere of the lowest. He owns but three 
per cent of the taxable property of the South, 
and most of that represents the accumulations 
of the older members of the race who were bred 
to the habits of industry which slavery pro- 
moted. He has had wide opportunities to 
prove his Industrial fitness in the manufactures 
which are springing up all over the South, but 
he has failed In factory and in mill because he 
cannot be relied upon to keep his contract. The 
average negro has not the first notion of moral 
responsibility. He possesses neither strength of 
will nor power of conscience to resist the in- 
clinations of his baser nature. He knows no 
motive to Industry beyond the simple barbaric 
Impulse to fill his stomach or to decorate his 



274 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

person. With these primitive wants tempo- 
rarily satisfied, he will knock off work with as 
little compunction as he would steal a chicken 
or sell his vote. 

The appalling disregard of moral obligations, 
plus his hand-to-mouth philosophy of existence, 
is the secret of the negro's Indisputable failure 
in the serious pursuits of life. 

At his present rate of deterioration the 
American negro Is destined to a certain and not 
distant extinction. The mere fact that the race 
numbers about nine millions in the United 
States, so far from indicating a future of prom- 
ise, signifies rather the contrary, for if the rate 
of increase which prevailed before the Civil 
War had continued to the present time, the nu- 
merical strength of the negro would have far 
exceeded that figure. 

Left to the " uncovenanted " mercy of a supe- 
rior race, and exposed to the untempered severi- 
ties of natural law without the safeguards of 
physical oversight or moral restraint, the ulti- 
mate disappearance of the negro from this con- 
tinent is only a matter of time. 



CHAPTER XX 

FROM THE IMPEACHMENT OF JOHNSON TO 
THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION OF 1884 

THE Constitution gives the President 
power to appoint many public officials 
subject to the approval of the Senate, 
but by common consent he has from earliest 
times had the right to remove independently 
any officer of the Government so appointed. 

The Tenure-of-Office Act.— In the spring of 
1867 Congress passed an act requiring the con- 
sent of the Senate to removals from office. The 
measure was designed by the Republican leaders 
to reduce the President's independent powers 
and thus bring him more completely under their 
control. It was an outgrowth of the quarrel 
between Congress and the Executive over Re- 
construction. 

Soon after the passage of the Tenure-of-Of- 
fice Act, President Johnson requested Mr. Stan- 
ton, the Secretary of War, with whom the 
President was not on speaking terms, to resign. 
Stanton refused to do so, whereupon the Presi- 
275 



276 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

dent removed him in defiance of the law and 
appointed General Grant to fill the office. The 
Senate was not in session when this occurred. 

When Congress met, the Senate refused to 
concur in the action of the Executive. General 
Grant resigned, and Stanton resumed his place 
in the Cabinet. The President again dismissed 
him and appointed another Secretary of War. 

Then occurred an event which had never hap- 
pened before in the history of the Republic. 
The House of Representatives impeached the 
President of the United States of high crimes 
and misdemeanors. 

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868). — 
The Constitution gives the power of impeach- 
ment to the lower branch of Congress, but pro- 
vides that trial shall be by the Senate. In the 
case of the President the Chief-justice of the 
Supreme Court presides. 

The charges against Andrew Johnson were 
eleven In number, the most important being his 
removal of the Secretary of War in defiance of 
the Tenure-of-Office Act. During the course 
of the trial, which lasted two months, popular 
excitement reached fever heat. The President's 
enemies were legion, his friends few. From 
beginning to end the prosecution was a strictly 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 277 

partisan affair, a policy of vengeance resorted 
to by the Republican leaders in order to punish 
the Executive for his insubordinate attitude 
toward the party which had made his elevation 
possible. 

The trial was conducted with slight regard 
to the rules which govern Impartial tribunals. 
Important testimony favorable to the President 
was repeatedly excluded by the Senate In spite 
of the ruling of Chief-justice Chase, who de- 
clared It admissible. 

The Senate numbered fifty- four members; a 
two-thirds vote was necessary to convict. As 
their names were called most of the Republi- 
cans voted, " guilty." The eight Democratic 
members answered, " not guilty." A few Re- 
publicans whom partisan fury had not blinded 
to the equities of the case voted with the Demo- 
crats, and the President was acquitted by a ma- 
jority of one. 

The Republican Senators who gave their 
voices for acquittal did so in the face of public 
threats, of newspaper abuse, and party pressure. 
Most of them were defeated for reelection. 
But the temperate judgment of later years has 
applauded their courage and approved the wis- 
dom of their course. 



278 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The result of the trial was most fortunate, 
not merely for the personal fame and official 
record of Andrew Johnson, who, had he been 
convicted, would have suffered the disgrace of 
deposition from office, but because of Its deep 
and permanent effect upon the political develop- 
ment of our country. Had that single deter- 
mining vote been cast for conviction, It would 
have established a precedent for expelling the 
President whenever he placed himself at cross 
purposes with Congress. The result of that 
would ultimately have been to destroy the ad- 
mirable system of legislative and executive bal- 
ance which the Constitution fixed as the effective 
safeguard against encroachment by one branch 
of government upon another and for the pro- 
tection of popular liberties from the tyranny of 
office. The conviction of Andrew Johnson 
would have made the President a figure-head 
and Congress supreme.* 

The Purchase of Alaska. — In 1867 the na- 
tional area was vastly Increased by the addition 
of Alaska at a cost of $7,200,000. This region 
had belonged to Russia since 1741. The pur- 
chase was negotiated principally to accommodate 

* The Tenure-of-Office Act was repealed by Congress in 
1887. 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 279 

the Russian Government, which alone of all 
the governments of Europe had been distinctly 
friendly to the cause of the Union in the Civil 
War. 

Alaska was not at the time regarded as a 
specially desirable annexation, as its resources 
were then unknown. Its seal fisheries, gold de- 
posits, and other ascertained natural wealth now 
make it a valuable territory. 

The Presidency of General Grant, 1869-77. — 
Four days after the close of the great trial the 
Republican Party met in national convention to 
nominate a presidential ticket. The man of the 
hour was General Grant, the magnanimous vic- 
tor of Appomattox, who received every vote in 
the convention on the first ballot. 

The Democrats named Horatio Seymour, of 
New York. Grant won by a large electoral 
majority, but Seymour polled a heavy popular 
vote. Had It not been for the carpet-bag gov- 
ernments of the South, Seymour might have been 
elected. The Democratic Party was reenforced 
by the "' war Democrats " who had formerly 
supported Lincoln, and by a considerable num- 
ber of Republicans who had become disgusted 
with Congressional Reconstruction. 

Grant's Weakness as an Executive.— Although 



28o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

General Grant entered on the office of Presi- 
dent with the best of intentions, his record as 
a civil ruler fell far below the plane of his 
achievements as a military leader. 

The Republican Party had enjoyed a monop- 
oly of government since 1861, and looked for- 
ward to its indefinite continuance. No political 
organization enjoying undisputed supremacy 
and confronted with every opportunity for cor- 
rupt profit can long remain uncontaminated. 
The Republican Party proved no exception to 
this rule. Since the war it had drifted into the 
hands of men who were using its immense pres- 
tige for personal ends rather than for the ad- 
vancement of public interests. 

General Grant was simple-hearted, straight- 
forward, and patriotic, but without experience 
in or aptitude for political life. Upright him- 
self, he could not tell the difference among his 
fellows between an honest man and a thief. 
Consequently many of the acts and policies of 
his administration attracted a fire of criticism 
upon the party which would have been impos- 
sible in the days of Lincoln. He was nomi- 
nated in obedience to unthinking popular clamor 
by crafty politicians, who saw in the military 
idol of the American people a convenient and 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 281 

certain means to bring themselves into power, 
and in his popularity an impenetrable shield to 
cover their evil deeds. He trusted his friends 
and they deceived him. 

The Republican Party Splits. — At the national 
convention of 1872 the regular party organi- 
zation renominated General Grant. 

Some of the best and ablest men of the Re- 
publican faith, who were dissatisfied with the 
way things had been going for the last four 
years, met at Cincinnati and placed in the field 
a Liberal Republican ticket headed by Horace 
Greeley, the gifted but erratic editor of the New 
York Tribune. Their platform denounced civil 
corruption and the disgraceful carpet-bag gov- 
ernments of the South, the scandals of which 
filled the civilized world. The Liberals were 
anxious for tariff reform, but Greeley, who was 
the most extreme protectionist in the country, 
vetoed every suggestion favoring a declaration 
to that effect, and the convention was obliged to 
yield. The tariff issue was waived by a plat- 
form resolution which left the matter to the 
Congressional districts. 

The Democrats also named Horace Greeley 
as their standard-bearer, joining forces with the 
Liberals in the hope of defeating the regular 



282 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Republican organization. The nomination of 
Greeley by the Democratic Party was a political 
Incongruity. It was brought about solely for 
reasons of supposed expediency. By no man In 
the country had that party been more vehe- 
mently assailed than by the brilliant editor of 
the Tribune^ the gist of whose abuse was popu- 
larly put thus: " I do not say that all Demo- 
crats are rascals, but It Is undeniably true that 
all rascals are Democrats." His availability as 
a candidate was thought to consist In the two 
facts that he had never advocated Republican 
methods of Reconstruction and that he had 
given ball for Jefferson Davis. These consid- 
erations appealed to the South, which desired 
above all things else to recover home rule. 

General Sherman, writing to his brother from 
Paris, said : " I feel amazed to see the turn things 
have taken. Grant, who never was a Repub- 
lican, is your candidate; while Greeley, who 
never was a Democrat, but quite the reverse, is 
the Democratic candidate." 

The result of the combine between the Lib- 
eral Republicans and the Democrats was a 
crushing disappointment to both. Greeley car- 
ried but six States, all of them Southern. 

A number of causes contributed to the over- 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 283 

whelming victory of General Grant: the remem- 
brance of his military triumphs and the prestige 
of his name; the discontent of many old-time 
Democrats and Republicans over their unnatural 
alliance and Incongruous candidate cost Greeley 
thousands of votes, as also did the powerful 
enemies he had made by his caustic newspaper 
editorials. The combination candidate had an 
eccentric personality which easily lent Itself to 
caricature. Although a great man and a gen- 
uine patriot, he was made to appear ridiculous 
by his clever opponents. 

The Reign of Graft. — The Immense majorities 
for Grant Imparted to the victorious Republi- 
cans a sense of security which made them reck- 
less. The four years that followed were char- 
acterized by general demoralization. *' Force 
bills " were enacted to sustain by the presence of 
Federal troops the corrupt carpet-bag govern- 
ments of the South. The " Whiskey Ring " de- 
frauded the Government of millions of dollars 
through the collusion of Internal revenue of- 
ficials. Congress was smirched with railroad 
scandals. The Indian Bureau was the willing 
tool of guilty contractors who robbed the red 
men and cheated the Government to fill their 
own pockets. 



284 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Secretary of War, not to be outdone by 
the rest, joined in the scramble for illicit gains. 
He was impeached, but escaped trial and con- 
viction by resigning his office. 

The elevation of General Grant to the presi- 
dency was a mistake, but the American people 
have long since forgiven the tragic blunders 
which form so sad a feature of his adminis- 
trations. They remember only his magnificent 
services on the field, and treasure the memory 
of the incomparable soldier who brought to 
glorious issue the greatest civil war in history. 

Patriotic Achievement. — The Grant adminis- 
trations, however, were not devoid of substan- 
tial benefit and triumph. One of General 
Grant's best services to his country was the ad- 
justment of the " Alabama Claims." During 
the war the British Government had permitted 
Confederate ships to be built and equipped In 
British ports. As these vessels were intended 
by the Confederate Government to destroy 
Northern shipping and commerce, the action of 
Great Britain was a breach of International law 
which imposes upon nations not at war the duty 
of treating impartially nations which are at war 
with each other. 

The most destructive of these ships was the 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 285 

Alabama, With one war of huge proportions 
already on Its hands, the United States could 
not at the time afford to run the almost cer- 
tain risk of becoming Involved In hostilities 
with Great Britain, never too friendly to the 
North. But after the restoration of peace our 
Government demanded of England an apology 
and a cash Indemnity for the damages sustained 
by Northern commerce by reason of British par- 
tiality to the Confederacy. The matter was 
submitted to a Board of Arbitration which met 
at Geneva In 1871 and remained In session 
nearly a year. The amount of the American 
claims proved extravagant, but the Board de- 
cided that England had failed In her duty as 
a neutral nation, and awarded the United States 
$15,500,000. 

The arbitration of the " Alabama Claims '' 
was a pronounced step In the moral advance- 
ment of nations. The memorable precedent 
established by these enlightened and powerful 
states In thus submitting to peaceful process of 
settlement an Irritating question gave Impulse 
throughout the civilized world to the principle 
of conciliation. 

The Resumption Act. — During the Civil War 
the Government had been compelled to Issue 



286 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

large amounts of paper money in the form of 
treasury notes, or " greenbacks," as they were 
popularly called, to meet the extraordinary ex- 
penses of the war. Although these notes de- 
preciated In value to some extent, there was no 
serious doubt of the Government's ability ulti- 
mately to redeem Its promises In hard money. 
Nearly ten years had elapsed since the surrender 
of Lee. The credit of the nation and the busi- 
ness Interests of the country alike demanded the 
return to a hard money basis. In January, 
1875, Congress passed an act setting a date for 
the resumption of specie payments, four years 
ahead, January i, 1879. 

The Centennial. — The year 1876 Is memorable 
for the celebration of the Republic's one hun- 
dredth birthday. In spite of difficulty and dan- 
ger the United States had discredited every 
gloomy prophecy of failure made by enemies 
or sceptics a century before, and had established 
a record for material achievement and moral 
progress unparalleled by older nations. 

The city of Philadelphia, which had been the 
scene of the Republic's birth, was fittingly chosen 
as the place for celebration, which took the 
form of an international exposition. Congress 
loaned money and the States made liberal 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 287 

appropriations. Nearly every country in the 
civilized world responded to the President's in- 
vitation to participate in the first international 
fair ever held on American soil. More than 
two hundred buildings were erected In Fair- 
mount Park, some of which still remain. 

The bewildering variety of the American dis- 
play gave Europe an object-lesson in the wealth, 
the intelligence, and the enterprise of this coun- 
try, while the European art exhibits impressed 
the intensely practical American with the more 
delicate refinements of civilization for which In 
his eager devotion to material interests he had 
as yet shown little consideration. 

Thus by affording opportunity for friendly 
participation In a mutual undertaking, the Cen- 
tennial promoted fraternity among men and 
nations. The Northerner and the Southerner, 
lately estranged by civil war, the Easterner and 
the Westerner, the American and the European, 
met together on common ground for better ac- 
quaintance and Interchange of Ideas. 

The Contested Election of 1876.— x^nother 
event of the Centennial year, in striking con- 
trast to the harmonious spirit of the Exposi- 
tion, nearly overthrew the foundations of the 
Republic. 



288 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

There was a very strong sentiment for reform 
in Government service which the Democrats in 
1876 made the key-note of their party platform. 

For the first time since the days of Stephen 
A. Douglas a truly great Democratic leader 
came to the front in the person of Samuel 
J. Tilden, Governor of New York. He had 
achieved national prominence in 1871 hy bring- 
ing to the bar of justice the corrupt '' Tweed 
Ring " which had debauched New York City, 
and by his exposure while Governor of the 
scarcely less notorious " Canal Ring " which 
was exploiting the State. The Democratic 
Party now nominated him for the presidency. 

The Repubhcan nominee was Rutherford B. 
Hayes, of Ohio, a thoroughly honest and capa- 
ble man, though unknown outside his State, of 
which he was Governor. The party was clearly 
on the defensive. As the accusations against 
it could not be successfully refuted, the cam- 
paign managers endeavored to detract public 
attention from the discreditable features of its 
record by raising a louder cry against the Demo- 
crats, denouncing them as enemies of the Re- 
public who had opposed the war and who, if 
intrusted with power, would put the South 
again in the saddle and reenslave the negro. 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 289 

The election was close. Of the Northern 
States, Tilden carried New York, New Jersey, 
Connecticut, and Indiana, every Southern State, 
and had a popular majority of two hundred and 
fifty thousand votes. This gave him appar- 
ently two hundred and three electoral votes and 
Hayes only one hundred and sixty-six. 

The morning after election the newspapers 
announced the election of Tilden. The Repub- 
licans, seeing things slipping from their control, 
at once claimed South Carolina, Florida, and 
Louisiana, on the ground that Republican votes 
had not been fairly counted. As these States 
were still under carpet-bag regime, their return- 
ing boards were obedient to Republican direc- 
tion. Enough Democratic votes were thrown 
out to insure Republican majorities, and it was 
proclaimed that Hayes had been elected by one 
hundred and eighty-five to one hundred and 
eighty- four electoral votes. 

It is said on high authority that the Repub- 
lican leaders had bargained with the Demo- 
crats of these three States to withdraw Federal 
troops and give the Democrats entire domestic 
control In exchange for their electoral votes.* 

* A. K. McCIure, "Our Presidents and How We Make 
Them." New York, 1900. 



290 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Democrats everywhere raised the cry of 
fraud. Popular excitement was intense and 
civil war threatened. Grant strengthened mili- 
tary defences around Washington. 

The Electoral Commission. — The people looked 
to Congress for peaceful solution, but the Sen- 
ate was Republican and the House Democratic. 
At length both branches agreed to refer the dis- 
puted election to a commission of five Senators, 
five Representatives, and five Justices of the Su- 
preme Court. Eight of them were Republi- 
cans and seven Democrats. The Commission 
was a partisan body and voted as such, deciding 
for Hayes by a majority of one. 

Although the decision of the Electoral Com- 
mission was partisan, there can be no doubt that 
it was wise. Had the result been different a 
serious blow would have been struck at the 
rights of the States. The real issue of the 
dispute was not which party had received an 
actual majority, but which set of electors had 
received the legal sanction of State authority. 
The Commission decided that it had no right 
to go behind the returns as certified by the 
States. 

A few years later. In 1887, Congress passed 
a law which enforced this finding by throwing 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 291 

upon each State the responsibility of determin- 
ing its own vote. 

The Hayes Administration was marked by use- 
ful accomplishment, and Is entitled to strong 
indorsement. The President was the foe of 
corruptlonists. Able statesmen were selected 
for Cabinet positions. So capably did John 
Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, manage 
the national finances that when January i, 1879, 
arrived, the day set for the resumption of specie 
payments, the people had so much confidence In 
the Government that few notes were presented 
for redemption. 

The two great parties were about evenly bal- 
anced. During the first two years the House 
was Democratic. The last two years saw the 
Democrats In full control of Congress, though 
the presence of a Republican President pre- 
vented partisan legislation. 

Government scandals came to an end and 
the wounds inflicted by the Civil War and 
Reconstruction began to heal. The President 
withdrew the last of the Federal troops from 
the Southern States, and for the first time 
since the Civil War the South was left to 
take care of itself. It was the assurance 
that this would be done that induced the 



292 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Democrats to acquiesce In the election of Mr. 
Hayes. 

The country was highly prosperous, and from 
1875 to 1883 commercial development Is the 
most striking feature of American history. 
Cities and towns grew with rapidity, railroads 
began to consolidate Into great systems, and 
giant corporations appeared which centralized 
business Interests In the hands of comparatively 
few men. Labor became restless. In 1877 
there were great railroad strikes In Pittsburgh, 
Baltimore, and Martlnsburg, attended by mob 
violence and *^ sympathetic " strikes in other 
branches of Industry, the most serious disturb- 
ance occurring In the coal regions of Pennsyl- 
vania and spreading to West Virginia and Illi- 
nois. The miners had the sympathy of the 
public and gained an advance in wages. 

Garfield and Arthur. — As the year 1880 ap- 
proached the Democrats looked forward to a 
victory. They nominated a promising candi- 
date in General Winfield Scott Hancock, one of 
the most picturesque figures of the Civil War, 
called " Hancock the Superb " on account of his 
gallant conduct, his chivalrous nature, and the 
magnificence of his personal appearance. 

The Republicans also named a soldier, Gen- 



FROM 1868 TO 1884 293 

eral James A. Garfield, of Ohio, one of the 
many public men in American life who have 
risen from the commonest level to high political 
station. 

The campaign was a singularly clean one. 
On the popular vote the two candidates were 
almost even, but Garfield won in the Electoral 
College. 

The new President had not been at the helm 
of state four months when he was shot by a dis- 
appointed office-seeker, who was probably in- 
sane. Garfield's life hung long in the balance. 
He suffered intensely, but never complained. 
On the night of September 19, 1881, he died 
at Elberon, N. J., near Long Branch. 

Chester A. Arthur, who became President on 
the death of his chief, had been a New York 
society leader and politician. His great ability 
and wisdom were not realized at the time, but 
he has gone down in history as one of the best 
Presidents the country has had. He vetoed ex- 
travagant legislation and did his best to secure 
the prosecution and conviction of corrupt of- 
ficials who had defrauded the Government dur- 
ing the Grant administrations. 

It was President Arthur who started the mod- 
ern American navy. 



294 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

But the Arthur administration Is chiefly 
memorable for the progress of civil service re- 
form. Ever since the days of Jackson the 
" spoils system " had held full sway with the 
consent and approval of politicians, who used 
the public offices and clerkships to build up and 
Insure their personal following. In 1883 Con- 
gress, In deference to public opinion on the mat- 
ter of arbitrary removals from office for parti- 
san reasons, passed a law classifying certain 
offices in the Government service under a system 
of examination and merit. President Arthur 
enforced the act with sincerity and courage. 
Since then nearly every branch of the service 
has been protected by law. 

The tariff was now becoming the paramount 
question. Activity of discussion and an unsatis- 
factory tariff act passed In 1883 shadowed the 
coming Issue between the two great parties. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 

THE election of 1884 was the most mem- 
orable since i860. It marked the 
final abandonment by both the great 
parties of the worn-out Issues of the Civil War 
and the substitution of questions of public ex- 
penditure, the currency, the tariff, and the trusts. 
The Democracy Returns to Power. — For nearly 
a quarter of a century the Republican Party had 
held the reins of government. It had saved the 
Union, destroyed slavery, maintained the credit 
of the nation through critical years, and given 
permanent triumph to the sentiment and prin- 
ciple of nationality over sectionalism. But along 
with Its magnificent achievements it had com- 
mitted some grievous mistakes. 

The Democratic Party, though always de- 
feated in presidential contests, had invariably 
polled a heavy vote. In 1876 it had a popular 
majority, in 1880 it fell only a few thousand 
below the Republican vote. From 1875 to 

29s 



296 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

1 88 1 it controlled the House of Representa- 
tives. In 1884 the party faced its quadrennial 
struggle confident of success. 

The Republican nominee was James G. 
Blaine. Born in Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish 
stock, he had emigrated to Maine in his youth. 
He had been Speaker of the House, United 
States Senator, Secretary of State, and was a 
debater of unusual strength. He was popular, 
renowned, magnetic, eloquent, briUiant. But 
he had made powerful enemies in his own party, 
chief and most vindictive among them being 
Roscoe Conkling, United States Senator from 
New York. 

Against this versatile and famous chieftain 
the Democrats pitted Grover Cleveland, the 
Governor of New York. Cleveland had proved 
himself to be an honest, industrious public ser- 
vant with very positive convictions of official 
duty and ample courage to stand by them. As 
Mayor of Buffalo and Governor of his State he 
had won the esteem of good men by his per- 
sistent hostility to bad legislation. 

The campaign was one of the bitterest in 
American political history, and the election was 
In doubt for days after the polls closed. When 
at last the result was known the returns an- 



THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 297 

nounced Republican defeat. Again, as in 1844 
and 1848, New York turned the scale. Senator 
Conkling, who hated Blaine, could not be pre- 
vailed upon to support his party's choice. In 
Conkling's home district the falling off from 
the normal Republican vote was greater than 
Cleveland's majority In the State. The reform 
element In the Republican Party, attracted by 
Cleveland's splendid record, rallied to his sup- 
port.* 

The First Administration of Cleveland.— The 
Republicans, who by reason of their long as- 
cendancy had come to regard their party as In- 
vincible, were thunderstruck at the election of a 
Democratic President. Such a thing had not 
happened since the election of Buchanan In 
1856. Prophecies of disaster were heard on 
every hand. " The South Is again In the sad- 
dle, the work of the war Is undone, the negro 
will be reenslaved," said the alarmists. 

Mr. Cleveland promptly disabused the public 
mind of Its baseless fears. The tone of his In- 
augural Address was lofty. " Public office Is a 

* The Republican reformers who "bolted" their party 
ticket to support Cleveland were derisively called "Mug- 
wumps" — a name that has since been generally applied to 
those who vote independently. 



298 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

public trust," he declared, and he lived up to the 
spirit of his words. His Cabinet was one of 
exceptional breadth and ability, chosen without 
sectional bias. Some of its members had fol- 
lowed Grant and others Lee In the war between 
the States. 

Politically the Cleveland administration was 
a quiet season. The Senate was Republican, 
and therefore partisan legislation was Impos- 
sible, though much useful legislation was ac- 
complished by the cooperation of both parties. 

Under the efficient direction of William C. 
Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, the naval re- 
forms begun by President Arthur were con- 
tinued and the old wooden vessels further re- 
placed by modern steel ships. 

The Presidential Succession Act — 1886. — The 
death of Vice-president Thomas A. Hendricks 
In 1885 awakened the country to the necessity 
of a change In the system of presidential suc- 
cession. As the law then stood, In case of the 
death of the President and Vice-president the 
President of the Senate would succeed to the 
Executive office, and after him the Speaker of 
the House of Representatives. But this ar- 
rangement might give the presidency to the 
party that had been unsuccessful at the polls. 



THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 299 

and thus turn to defeat the victory of the party 
that had carried the election. Accordingly, 
Congress passed a law providing that the line 
of succession should include only Cabinet of- 
ficers in the following order: the Secretaries of 
State, Treasury, War, the Attorney-general, 
the Postmaster-general, the Secretary of the 
Navy, the Secretary of the Interior. Of course 
these heads of departments must be Constitu- 
tionally eligible to the presidency to come under 
the act. 

Labor Troubles. — In order to make better 
terms with employers, labor unions had been 
formed by workingmen in various trades at an 
early date. They did not, however, achieve 
much importance until after the Civil War. 
In 1886 the American Federation of Labor 
united many of these special trades unions in 
a national body for the purpose of more 
effectively protecting the interests of the wage- 
earners. 

The labor unions were determined to win 
'' recognition of the union," that is, to compel 
employers to deal with their workmen through 
the unions instead of individually, since better 
advantages could be secured by collective action. 
They also demanded shorter hours, more pay. 



300 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and the exclusion of non-union men from em- 
ployment. The American Federation of Labor 
had authority to order and enforce general 
strikes when employers refused to grant the de- 
mands of a particular union. 

The new organization at once made Its power 
felt. The year 1886 saw the beginning of an 
Industrial warfare that has continued ever since, 
sometimes rampant and aggressive, sometimes 
quietly Intense, always persistent and determined. 
Nearly every branch of Industry was affected, 
but chiefly the railroads. In Chicago and St. 
Louis there were great strikes accompanied by 
mob violence. 

Anarchist Riots. — These labor disturbances 
were aggravated by a new foreign element 
which for several years had been pouring Into 
the country. The earlier Immigrants to the 
United States had come from the British Isles 
and the north of Europe. They were intelli- 
gent, law-abiding people who quickly caught 
the spirit of American customs and institutions. 
After the Civil War a heavy tide of immigra- 
tion set In, made up of Italians, Poles, Hun- 
garians, and Portuguese. Many of them were 
anarchists who were intolerant of law and hated 
government of every sort, which they identified 



THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 301 

with despotism Irrespective of form or actuat- 
ing spirit. 

On the night of May 3, 1886, about fourteen 
hundred anarchists assembled In Haymarket 
Square, Chicago, to listen to violent speeches 
advocating the overthrow of government. When 
the police ordered the crowd to disperse a bomb 
was thrown which exploded, killing seven police- 
men. The leaders of the mob were arrested by 
the Chicago authorities, tried, and convicted. 
Some were executed, and others given long 
terms of Imprisonment. 

The Interstate Commerce Act.— For many 
years the railroads had been allowed to develop 
In freedom. Because they distributed popula- 
tion through hitherto unsettled regions, both 
Federal and State governments had encouraged 
their construction, giving them rights of way 
and grants of land or money. But the rail- 
roads had abused their powers. In the matter 
of freight rates they had discriminated unfairly 
between shippers by secretly granting much 
lower charges to some than to others, thus en- 
abling favored shippers to drive their less fort- 
unate rivals from the markets. At length the 
public became so Indignant at the methods of 
the railroads that Congress determined to exer- 



302 BIRD*S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

else the power which the Constitution gives it 
to regulate commerce between the States. In 
1887 the Interstate Commerce Act was passed, 
which forbade these and kindred practices, and 
also prohibited such combinations between rail- 
roads as resulted In the general injury of other 
business interests. A permanent Commission 
was appointed to investigate charges against the 
railroads and render decisions, subject to review 
by the courts. Its powers have since been in- 
creased. 

The Interstate Commerce Act has lessened, 
though it has not cured, the evils which it was 
designed to remedy. 

Cleveland and Civil Service Reform. — The main 
trouble with the Jacksonlan spoils system was 
that it encouraged partisanship too often at the 
expense of patriotism. The party might stand 
for bad principles or selfish leadership, but men 
must support it If they would hold office under 
the Government. 

Under General Grant's administration Con- 
gress had authorized the creation of a Civil 
Service Commission, which established a system 
of competitive examinations for appointments 
to office. After three years, however, the work 
of the Commission was abandoned because 



THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 303 

Congress, which was not In sympathy with its 
alms, refused to vote money for Its continuance. 

President Hayes tried to reestablish the sys- 
tem, but failed, owing to the determined oppo- 
sition of politicians and the Indifference of the 
public. 

Garfield's assassination was Indirectly due to 
the spoils system, since It was the work of a 
crazed office-seeker. It brought civil service 
reform again to the forefront, and a law was 
passed in 1883 which President Arthur strictly 
enforced. 

The Independent Republicans who supported 
Cleveland in 1884 did so because of his well- 
known friendliness to reform and his hostility 
to the spoils system, as evidenced by his record 
as Mayor of Buffalo and Governor of New 
York, and by his public utterances. 

As President, Mr. Cleveland proved faithful 
to his earlier principles, greatly extending the 
civil service. But he could not disappoint office- 
seekers indiscriminately; the Democratic Party 
was not ready for so sweeping a departure from 
historic precedent. Hence he failed to satisfy 
the reformers who expected him to destroy the 
spoils system immediately, root and branch. 
While he would not turn out a Republican 



304 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

office-holder simply because he happened to be 
a Republican, and appoint a Democrat in his 
place, as most Presidents had done since Jack- 
son's time, yet he distributed a large number 
of postmasterships. The result was that nobody 
was suited. The Democrats were displeased 
because they did not get more offices, and the 
civil-service reformers found fault because the 
President did not do more reforming. 

Cleveland's Famous Tariff Message. — In dis- 
cussing the tariff it is necessary to remember 
that the term " protection '^ has a somewhat dif- 
ferent meaning to-day from that which it had 
when advocated by Henry Clay and the Whigs, 
and by the Republican Party itself for the first 
thirty years of its history. 

Prior to the war protection meant an Import 
tax sufficiently high to exclude foreign goods 
until American industries which were engaged 
In the same lines of manufacture were strong 
enough to stand foreign competition. Its pur- 
pose was to encourage " infant " industries un- 
til they could become self-supporting. It was 
never intended by early advocates to continue 
the protective policy indefinitely. 

When the Civil War broke out the Govern- 
ment was compelled to levy many new taxes in 



THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 305 

order to get money to carry on the struggle for 
the Union. These taxes fell heavily upon the 
manufacturers. To ease them of their unusual 
burden, Congress passed a high-tariff act which 
placed heavy duties upon the goods of foreign 
competitors. This not only relieved the manu- 
facturers, but it also put more money into the 
national treasury by the simple device of raising 
the duties. 

After the restoration of peace most of these 
extraordinary taxes were repealed, but the war 
tariff continued. The manufacturers who had 
built up a monopoly of the home trade by the 
aid of the war tariff were unwilling to return to 
the moderate schedules that prevailed before 
the war. 

One result of high protection was the accu- 
mulation of a large surplus In the treasury. 
Republican Presidents from Grant to Arthur 
had deplored a steadily Increasing surplus on 
the ground that it was a temptation to extrava- 
gance in legislation. Each of them had recom- 
mended lowering the duties. 

In his annual message to Congress in 1887 
President Cleveland boldly attacked protection. 
He accused It of fostering monopoly by destroy- 
ing competition, of encouraging legislative ex- 



3o6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

travagance by creating a surplus, and of op- 
pressing the poor through the maintenance of 
high prices. 

As the time for the next presidential election 
approached, the Republicans had very little 
campaign material to use against the party in 
power. The Senate being Republican they had 
necessarily shared In whatever legislation had 
been enacted. But the President's message 
gave them their cue. The party rallied to the 
defence of the principle which Cleveland had 
attacked. They not only opposed lowering the 
existing duties, but they advocated raising them 
still higher. 

The Election of 1888. — The Democrats re- 
nominated Cleveland, and fought the campaign 
on the lines of his tariff message. The Repub- 
licans nominated Benjamin Harrison, grandson 
of a former President, and declared for protec- 
tion. They claimed that It resulted in better 
wages and more general employment, provided 
a home market for domestic producers, and pro- 
tected American labor against foreign compe- 
tition. 

The campaign was clean, dignified, and Intel- 
lectual. Cleveland had a popular plurality over 
the Republican candidate of about one hundred 



THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 



Z^l 



and ten thousand, but Harrison won on the elec- 
toral vote. Once more, as in 1844, 1848, and 
1884, New York was the pivotal State, electing 
a Democratic Governor, but giving its thirty-six 
presidential votes to Harrison. 

The Harrison Administration. — The most im- 
portant events of President Harrison's term 
took the form of three laws passed in 1890 
dealing with the tariff, the trusts, and the cur- 
rency, issues which were more and more absorb- 
ing public attention. They are important be- 
cause they show the directions in which the par- 
ties were drifting and what the people were 
thinking about. 

The McKinley Tariff.*— The success of the Re- 
pubhcans, which was due chiefly to the treachery 
of a Democratic faction in New York, was 
interpreted by themselves to mean that the 
country was ready for more protection. A tariff 
measure which became law October i, 1890, 
raised the average of duties beyond any point 
they had ever yet reached. Mr. Blaine strongly 
counselled against passing the McKinley bill, 

* Tariff laws are always named after the Chairman of 
the House Committee on Ways and Means, which is the 
Committee intrusted with the framing of such measures. 
In 1890 the Chairman was William McKinley, of Ohio. 



3o8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

predicting that if it were enacted into law it 
would defeat the party In the end. His advice 
was disregarded. 

For the first time the most common articles 
of household necessity were placed on the pro- 
tected list.^ Instantly prices rose, but wages, de- 
spite campaign promises, remained stationary. 
The people were indignant. At the Congres- 
sional elections in November the Republicans 
were defeated and a Democratic House was re- 
turned. But the Senate being Republican, re- 
vision of tariff schedules was Impossible. 

The Sherman Anti-Trust Law, 1890.— A strong 
popular protest had been raised against the 
great combinations, such as the Standard Oil 
Company, the Sugar Trust, and the powerful 
railroads, whose methods, often unfair and ille- 
gal, had done much to destroy competition In 
business. Senator Sherman, of Ohio, framed a 
law empowering the courts to declare void any 
contract which came before them that was in- 
jurious to public Interests and In restraint of 
trade. The statute remained a dead letter until 
1904, when a decision of the United States Su- 
preme Court dissolved the Northern Securities 
Company, a combination of two great railroads 
in the North-west. 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 

WE now come to the only " third par- 
ty " In the history of American 
politics that has ever exerted a 
profound Influence upon the events of its 
day. 

The Rise of the Populists.— For some years the 
currency question had been steadily forging to 
the front. Agitation centred in the West and 
South, which had not shared to a great extent 
in the prosperity of the East, and where the 
spirit of discontent and unrest was therefore 
strong. The South had not recovered from the 
effects of the war, and the West had not yet 
developed the Industrial strength that had made 
the East wealthy, though its population had in- 
creased with amazing rapidity.* 

* Six new Western States were admitted in two years : 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington 
in 1889, Idaho and Wyoming in 1890. Oklahoma Territory, 
which had been carved out of Indian Territory in 1866 and 
reserved for civiHzed Indians and freedmen, was thrown open 
to white settlers in 1890. 

309 



310 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Much of the Western farming-land was mort- 
gaged to Eastern capitalists, to whom was at- 
tributed the greater part of the Ills of which the 
West and South complained. This feeling of 
dissatisfaction expressed Itself In the form of a 
political organization, which soon grew into the 
People's, or Populist, Party. This party was 
opposed to protection and also to some of the 
fundamental principles of American commercial 
life. It stood for Government ownership of the 
railroads and of other public utilities which the 
great corporations had monopolized, and upon 
the control of which they had built up their 
extraordinary power. But what gave the Popu- 
list Party its peculiar hold upon the masses of 
people in the South and West was Its persistent 
advocacy of the free and unlimited coinage of 
silver. 

The Free Silver Movement. — For many cen- 
turies the civilized world used gold and silver 
as standard money In legal proportions varying 
as the market value of the metals changed. 
This system proved unsatisfactory, owing to the 
difficulty In keeping the legal and the com- 
mercial ratios the same. By 1873 most of the 
civilized nations. Including the United States, 
had abandoned bimetallism and adopted the 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 311 

gold standard, though continuing to use sil- 
ver as subsidiary currency at the ratio of 16 
to I. 

This antl-sllver legislation Inevitably cheap- 
ened the commercial value of the white metal 
and made the silver mines of the West less profit- 
able to their owners, who thereupon demanded 
that the Government restore silver as full stand- 
ard money. 

The demands of the mine-owners were sec- 
onded by a large class of people who believed 
that national prosperity depended upon having 
a greater amount of money in circulation. 
They were convinced that the bankers and capl- 
tahsts of the East were trying to monopolize the 
supply of standard money, and that the only way 
to defeat their plot was to make money so plen- 
tiful that Wall Street * could not " corner " the 
supply. This they thought could best be done 
by going back to the double standard and mak- 
ing silver full legal tender. 

The Populist Party was the recognized cham- 
pion of these ideas, though many Democrats in 

* A street in New York City where capitalists do business. 
Because it was the financial centre of the country Wall Street 
became a synonym for the money power which it repre- 
sented. 



312 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the West and South and many Western Repub- 
licans held the same views. 

As new States were admitted from the West 
the silver movement became more formidable. 
At length the silver men In Congress Introduced 
a bill to open the Government mints to the free 
and unlimited coinage of silver Into full legal 
tender money at the existing legal ratio of 1 6 to 
I, notwithstanding the fact that silver had stead- 
ily declined in the markets of the world until the 
amount contained In a silver dollar was worth 
much less than the gold in a standard dollar. 
The bill did not pass, but so strong were the 
advocates of the white metal that in order to 
conciliate them a compromise measure was 
enacted in 1890 known as 

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act.* — This law 
authorized the purchase by the Government of 
four million five hundred thousand ounces of 
silver every month, to be paid for in treasury 
notes redeemable in gold on demand. The sil- 
ver bullion Itself was not to be coined, but was 
to remain in the treasury and be represented in 

* Named after Senator John Sherman, the author of the 
Anti-Trust Law, and the most prominent member of the 
joint committee of Senate and House that framed the meas- 
ure, 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 313 

circulation by the notes, which were made legal 
tender. It was expected that the law would 
help the mine-owners by creating a demand 
for silver, which would consequently advance its 
price. 

The Second Cleveland Administration. — Blaine's 
prophecy that the McKinley Tariff would de- 
feat the party which enacted it was completely 
realized in 1892. 

Again Harrison headed the Republican ticket, 
while the Democrats for the third time nomi- 
nated Cleveland. The tariff was the main Issue 
of the campaign, which ended with an over- 
whelming Democratic victory. The personal 
popularity of the ex-President, his well-known 
Integrity, and the general dissatisfaction caused 
by the McKinley Tariff, which had raised the 
price of the necessaries of life but not the wages 
of labor, were the chief factors in determining 
the result. 

A significant feature of the election was the 
great strength developed by the Populist move- 
ment In the West, where in several States the 
Democrats named no electoral ticket, but sup- 
ported Weaver, the Populist candidate, on a 
platform calling for the free and unlimited coin- 
age of silver. 



314 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

There was a growing tendency on the part 
of the Western Democrats to cooperate with the 
Populists, due to the conviction that Cleveland 
and the Eastern Democrats were controlled by 
the financial interests of Wall Street. Not a 
few Silver Republicans also voted for Weaver, 
who received twenty-two electoral votes. 

For the first time since 1858, when James 
Buchanan was President, the Democratic Party 
was in full control of the Government, and there- 
fore fully responsible. It had the Executive 
and a large majority in both branches of Con- 
gress. That the party failed to make a great 
record for itself after waiting nearly forty years 
for the opportunity, was due to jealousies and 
disaffections within its own ranks. The East- 
ern and Western Democrats were at variance 
with each other. The President was disliked 
by the politicians, who had been almost unani- 
mously opposed to his nomination, and who had 
yielded only because the popular demand for 
his candidacy was too great to be safely re- 
sisted. 

From the standpoint of Mr. Cleveland's pub- 
lic services, performed under difficulties of un- 
precedented magnitude and gravity, his second 
term deserves to be enrolled among the great ad- 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 315 

ministrations in the national history. let 
throughout its entire period, in nearly all im- 
portant measures, his own party refused to sup- 
port the President. 

The Repeal of the Sherman Act, 1893. — ^The 
Silver Purchase Act had disappointed the advo- 
cates of that measure by failing to arrest the 
fall in the price of silver, while it had alarmed 
the conservative business class by seeming to im- 
peril the gold standard. 

During the Harrison administration Con- 
gress had spent a great deal of money, so that 
when the Democrats came into power the gold 
reserve in the treasury was low. A spirit of un- 
rest and apprehension pervaded the country. 
As always happens under such conditions, the 
Government revenues from the tariff diminished. 
Then British India suspended the coinage of 
silver, and that metal fell still further in value. 
Meantime our Government was purchasing 
four million five hundred thousand ounces of 
silver every month and paying for It in gold. 
Great distrust prevailed In financial circles as to 
the ability of the Government to continue to 
meet its obligations In gold, the standard money 
of civilization. It was feared that the country 
would be driven onto a silver basis. Business 



3i6 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

concerns failed, factories closed, and banks col- 
lapsed. Clearly a remedy was needed. 

President Cleveland, who believed that these 
distressing conditions were chiefly due to the 
Sherman Silver Purchase Act, called a special 
session of Congress and urged Its speedy repeal. 
Here arose a difficulty, for the Democrats, 
though easily commanding a majority, were di- 
vided over the money question. 

A great debate was held In the House of Rep- 
resentatives, which was remarkable for a speech 
delivered by William J. Bryan, a young Con- 
gressman from Nebraska, who attracted the 
attention of the country by his able and eloquent 
statement of the argument for silver. But the 
Gold Democrats were strong In the House, and 
with the aid of the Eastern Republicans the mo- 
tion for repeal was carried by a large vote after 
only three weeks of discussion. 

In the Senate silver sentiment was strong, and 
the repeal of the Sherman Act met with deter- 
mined and prolonged resistance. The Silver 
Senators of all parties resorted to '^ filibuster- 
ing." Some tried to talk the motion to death. 
One of them, a Populist from Nebraska, made 
a speech fourteen hours long. Then the other 
side attempted to tire out the opposition by pre- 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 317 

venting adjournment, and for three days and 
nights the Senators remained In their seats. At 
last the President threatened to withhold Fed- 
eral patronage from the Senators who were ob- 
structing the passage of the motion, and those 
who thought more of the spoils of office than 
they did of their principles came quickly to 
terms.* After three months of useless delay 
the Sherman Act was repealed, but it came too 
late to avert the panic that had long been threat- 
ening. 

The repeal of the Sherman Act was regarded 
by the silver men in all parties as a victory for 
the financiers of Wall Street, who It was be- 
lieved were trying to reduce the volume of 
money In order to " corner " or monopolize the 
supply. 

This impression was strengthened by another 
policy which the President was compelled to 
adopt in the emergency created by the low state 
of the treasury. To save the credit of the na- 
tion and enable It to meet Its obligations in gold, 

* In every State there are many Federal offices whose in- 
cumbents are appointed by the President. It is an unwritten 
law that the senior Senator shall name the appointees. As 
this privilege gives him a strong hold upon his constituents, 
the President can greatly injure a Senator by withholding the 
"patronage," as the bestowal of these offices Is called. 



3i8 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Mr. Cleveland negotiated a gold loan from a 
New York banking syndicate, which received in 
exchange interest-bearing Government bonds. 
For this measure the President was bitterly de- 
nounced by many in his own party, who accepted 
it as additional evidence of the subserviency of 
the Eastern Democracy to Wall Street. 

The repeal of the Sherman Act and the bond 
issue went far toward solidifying the alliance 
already formed between the Silver Democrats 
and the Populists. 

The Wilson Tariff. — Another vital Issue on 
which the President and his party failed to 
agree was the tariff. 

The Democrats had pledged themselves In 
1892 to repeal the McKInley Tariff and substi- 
tute lower duties. A bill was Introduced in the 
House of Representatives by William L. Wil- 
son, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and 
Means, proposing to reduce the duties on many 
articles, which was carried by a large majority. 
The bill was then referred to the Senate where 
some of the Democratic members, contrary to 
their party creed and their election promises, 
Insisted upon so much protection that when the 
measure finally passed both Houses the Presi- 
dent refused to sign It. But as he beheved It 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 319 

to be an Improvement on the McKInley Tariff, 
he could not veto it, and so allowed it to become 
a law without his signature. 

It was publicly charged, and generally be- 
lieved, that corrupt influences had persuaded 
certain Democratic Senators to vote for the re- 
tention of extortionate duties. 

The Wilson Tariff law carried with It a pro- 
vision for raising additional revenue by means 
of an income tax. This, however, was declared 
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Opin- 
ion was divided, and the decision reversed all 
precedents. 

The failure of the Supreme Court to sustain 
the income tax aggravated the bitterness of 
those who were already convinced that the Gov- 
ernment was hand In glove with the million- 
aires. 

The Columbian Exposition which was held in 
celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of 
the discovery of America, offers a cheerful con- 
trast to these troublous experiences. In fitting 
recognition of the world-wide results which had 
flowed from that remote event, it was deter- 
mined to hold In the city of Chicago an Inter- 
national exposition similar to the Centennial of 
1876, but on a larger scale, showing the prog- 



320 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

ress that the human race had made in four hun- 
dred years along all lines of effort. 

The Exposition lasted from May to Novem- 
ber, 1893, preparations having been begun too 
late to hold It In 1892, the correct year. Mag- 
nificent buildings were erected at great cost, 
wherein were displayed the treasures of art and 
the triumphs of science and Industry. The 
world had made marvellous strides In civiliza- 
tion since Columbus unfurled the banner oi 
Spain on San Salvador In 1492, and America 
had led the way In much of It. 

The Great Pullman Strike, 1894. — The hard 
times through which the whole country was 
passing produced great discontent In the labor 
world. Many men and women were thrown out 
of employment or had their wages reduced. 

The Pullman Company, manufacturers of 
cars, whose shops were located near Chicago, 
cut down the wages of their workmen, but did 
not reduce the salaries of officers or the rents 
of the Company's houses In which their em- 
ployees lived. The men then struck. When 
the Company were asked to arbitrate the matter 
they refused, saying they were doing the best 
they could and had nothing to arbitrate. 

The American Railway Union, which many 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 321 

of the Pullman strikers had joined, thereupon 
ordered all members of the Union to handle no 
cars made by the Pullman Company. As Pull- 
man cars were almost universally used, nearly 
every railroad west of Ohio was paralyzed by 
the order. Interstate commerce, passenger traf- 
fic, and the United States mails were seriously 
Interrupted. 

A Federal court issued an injunction against 
the American Railway Union, ordering it to re- 
frain from further attempts to Induce employees 
to strike. This enraged the strikers, who up to 
this point had not been guilty of violence. They 
now began to destroy cars and tear up tracks. 
The strike spread all through the West and 
South-west, and many persons lost their lives. 
Much of the violence was committed by an- 
archists, who sympathized with the strikers but 
were not members of the American Railway 
Union. The President issued a proclamation 
against rioting. 

Some of the labor leaders, among them Eu- 
gene V. Debs, the president of the Union, were 
arrested and put in jail for disobeying the In- 
junction of the court, on the technical charge of 
contempt. This act was severely condemned by 
many prominent men who had no sympathy for 



322 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Debs or his associates or the cause they repre- 
sented, but who believed that it was contrary 
to the spirit of our laws and institutions and 
dangerous to liberty to permit courts to send 
men to jail without trial. The incident was 
destined to play a part in the next presidential 
campaign. 

Whether right or wrong, the Imprisonment 
of the leaders broke the backbone of the strike. 
The loss of life and property was immense, and 
would have been vastly greater had it not 
been for the energetic measures of President 
Cleveland. The Governor of Illinois, who was 
in sympathy with the strikers, refused to call 
out the National Guard in spite of the hourly 
destruction of life and property in Chicago. 
Mr. Cleveland then sent Federal troops to the 
scene of the rioting, and order was quickly re- 
stored. 

The President was widely criticised for his 
action on the ground that he had exceeded his 
authority. The Constitution does not specifi- 
cally authorize the Executive to send Federal 
soldiers into a State for such a purpose unless 
the State Government requests it. But the Con- 
stitution and laws do empower him to protect 
the United States mails and interstate commerce 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 323 

against conspiracies. These interests were clear- 
ly imperilled, and it was on this ground that 
Mr. Cleveland justified his course. This inci- 
dent also was destined to assist in shaping the 
Issues of the next campaign. 

Cleveland Champions the Monroe Doctrine.— 
For more than half a century there had been 
disagreement between Great Britain and Venez- 
uela over the boundary separating Venezuela 
from British Guiana. The South American 
country had many times offered to submit the 
dispute to arbitration, but Great Britain had al- 
ways declined. President Cleveland directed 
the Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Obey, to 
inform Great Britain that the United States, In 
accordance with the Monroe Doctrine, must in- 
sist on the arbitration of the British- Venezuelan 
dispute. Lord Salisbury, the British Prime- 
minister, refused, declaring that he did not ac- 
cept the Monroe Doctrine. Then the Presi- 
dent, believing that this time-honored policy 
was in peril, sent a message to Congress^ In 
December, 1895, recommending the appoint- 
ment of a Commission to determine the exact 
boundary, and declaring that In case the dis- 
puted territory should be found to belong right- 
fully to Venezuela It would become " the duty 



324 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of the United States to resist by every means In 
Its power " the aggressions of Great Britain. 

The message threatened war and aroused the 
national patriotism. Congress forgot party and 
factional differences and came heartily to the 
support of the President. Lord Salisbury then 
receded from his position and agreed to arbi- 
trate. 

The Commission decided In favor of the 
British contention, but the Incident Impressed 
Europe with the fact that the Monroe Doctrine 
was a vital and Integral part of the policy of 
the United States, and could not be safely trifled 
with. 

Free Silver and the Battle of 1896. — The silver 
movement, which had been steadily gathering 
momentum, broke over the country In a perfect 
tidal wave In 1896. 

The Republican Party contained a strong and 
numerous silver faction, but Its general leaning 
was toward the gold standard. The convention 
met at St. Louis In June, and adopted a com- 
promise platform favoring the retention of the 
single gold standard until the double standard 
could be restored by the joint action of the other 
leading nations, which It pledged Itself to bring 
about. It nominated for President, William 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 325 

McKInley, of Ohio, and for Vice-president, 
Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey. Both can- 
didates had risen from poverty in early life by 
industry and force of character. McKinley had 
been fourteen years a member of Congress, 
twice Governor of Ohio, and had shown great 
strength as a party leader. 

The Democrats met in Chicago a few weeks 
later. For a long time the Democratic Party 
had been drifting in the direction already taken 
by the Populists. The convention was com- 
pletely dominated by the Western wing, but 
there was no leadership. While the convention 
was trying to decide on a candidate, William J. 
Bryan addressed the delegates in an impas- 
sioned speech of great eloquence, giving ex- 
pression in thrilling language to ideals and sen- 
timents which the majority in the hall felt, but 
which Bryan alone seemed to have the power 
to utter. The effect of the speech was to stam- 
pede the convention for the orator, who was 
nominated for the presidency the next day. Mr. 
Bryan was barely thirty-six years old, just one 
year above the Constitutional age of eligibility. 
Arthur Sewall, of Maine, received the nomina- 
tion for Vice-president. 

The Democratic platform demanded the free 



326 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and unlimited coinage of silver at the existing 
legal ratio of i6 to i " without waiting for the 
aid or consent of any other nation." Its labor 
plank denounced the sending of Federal troops 
to Chicago during the Pullman strike, and the 
abuse of injunctions by the courts, as instanced 
In the committal of Debs and his associates to 
jail without trial. The platform also demanded 
an income tax as the best means to effect a just 
distribution of the burden of supporting the 
Government. 

The Populist Party, finding Its aims and sym- 
pathies so cordially reflected by the Democratic 
Party, also nominated Bryan with Thomas E. 
Watson, of Georgia, for his running mate. The 
Populist demands coincided with those of the 
Democrats, but included in addition Government 
ownership of railroads and telegraphs and the 
popular election of President, Vice-president, 
and United States Senators. 

Many Western Republicans who believed In 
free silver turned against their party and In- 
dorsed Bryan, while the Eastern Democrats 
very generally supported McKinley. 

A very small minority of the Democratic 
Party met in Indianapolis and named an Inde- 
pendent ticket on a platform declaring unequlvo- 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 327 

cally for the gold standard. The Gold Demo- 
crats were indorsed by President Cleveland, but 
polled only a few thousand votes. 

The Argument. — Had It not been for the hard 
times of 1893 and 1894 the free silver Idea 
would probably not have attained such wide 
popularity. It was offered as a sure remedy 
for existing poverty and business distress. 

The Democrats claimed that ever since the 
demonetization of silver by the leading nations 
there had not been sufficient standard money — 
that Is, gold — to keep pace with the growth of 
business; that the supply of gold had remained 
about the same while the demand for It had con- 
stantly Increased, which meant that the yellow 
metal was constantly appreciating In value. 
Consequently a man who had borrowed $1,000 
twenty years ago would have to pay It back to- 
day In money worth very much more than when 
the debt was contracted. This was an obvious 
Injustice to the debtor class. Restore silver as 
standard money along with gold, said they, and 
gold will drop In value because It will be In less 
demand, while silver will rise. When one metal 
gets too dear we will use the other, and thus 
maintain the parity. 

The Republicans said in effect: We also be- 



328 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

lieve in the double standard, but we do not think 
it possible for the United States alone to restore 
bimetallism, for if we open our mints to the 
free and unlimited coinage of silver, all the sil- 
ver of the world will flow hither. The experi- 
ence of the whole world proves that cheap 
money always drives good money out of circu- 
lation. We shall be driven onto a silver basis 
hke the countries of South America and Asia. 
A silver dollar is worth in the market only fifty 
cents. If we pay our debts in fifty-cent dollars 
we shall be dishonest to our creditors. Wait 
until we can get the consent of Europe, and 
then we will restore the double standard. 

To this the Democrats answered : The United 
States produces more silver than any other coun- 
try. Europe must buy our silver, because no- 
where else can she get all that she needs for 
currency and for use in the arts. We admit 
that the market value of a silver dollar is only 
fifty cents. But if we offer to stamp all the 
fifty-cent silver in the world with a dollar mark 
we shall create such a demand for silver that 
other nations will be compelled to do the same 
thing, and a dollar will then be worth as much 
in the market as it is at the mints. 

Neither side intended to be dishonest to 



THE SILVER QUESTION IN POLITICS 329 

debtor or creditor. It was simply a difference 
of conviction as to the most effective method 
of establishing a monetary system that both 
parties seemed to think desirable. The Demo- 
crats said: We can do It ourselves. The Re- 
publicans said: We must have the consent of 
Europe. 

The Triumph of the Gold Standard.— After the 
most exciting political battle since i860 the 
Democratic Party was defeated and the Repub- 
licans once more returned to power. 

The campaign called out the largest vote In 
the history of the country up to that time. Mc- 
Klnley had a popular majority of over half a 
million, but the vote for Bryan was larger than 
Cleveland's vote In 1892. 

The Administration of William McKinley. — One 
of the first acts of the McKinley administration 
was to conciliate the defeated silver forces by 
sending three commissioners abroad to Inquire 
Into the possibility of restoring the double stand- 
ard by International consent, but the commis- 
sioners found little sentiment favorable to such 
a step. The gold dollar was then fixed by law 
as the standard of value for the United States, 
thus supplementing the earlier legislation of 

1873. 



330 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The gold discoveries in the Klondike and else- 
where in recent years have eliminated the silver 
issue from politics, and its revival is improbable. 

The Dingley Tariff. — President McKinley sum- 
moned an extra session of Congress soon after 
his inauguration to provide means for increas- 
ing the public revenue. The Dingley Tariff 
was passed in July, 1897, superseding the Wil- 
son Act. It raised the average of duties even 
above the McKinley Tariff of 1890, and is still 
in force (1907). 

European nations began to retaliate with simi- 
lar legislation against the United States, impos- 
ing prohibitive duties upon American goods 



CHAPTER XXIII 

WAR AND EXPANSION 

AT the period with which this history 
opened Spain was the dominant power 
" of the world. We have seen how In 
colonial days Spanish dominion gave place to 
French and English control. Toward the close 
of the nineteenth century the only territory 
owned by Spain In the Western Hemisphere 
were Cuba, Porto Rico, and a few other Islands 
In the West Indies. These possessions were 
still ruled In the Spanish fashion of the sixteenth 
century, plundered by greedy and corrupt offi- 
cials, their inhabitants having no acquaintance 
with self-government. 

The Revolt of Cuba. — The people of Cuba had 
several times revolted against the tyranny of 
their masters, but had always been pacified by 
promises of better government, which were In- 
variably broken. The last rebellion began in 
1895, ^^d was carried on In a spirit of wonder- 
ful heroism. 

331 



332 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Spanish military methods were cruel. The 
noncombatant population of the Island was 
herded in camps and towns and subjected to 
the slow torture of starvation. Both Cleveland 
and McKInley, during their tenures of presiden- 
tial office, had issued warnings that this inhuman 
warfare must cease, but Spain gave no heed. 

The Destruction of the Maine. — There were 
many American citizens living in Havana, and 
the United States had large commercial and 
shipping interests in the Island. In February, 
1898, President McKInley ordered the battle- 
ship Maine to Cuban waters to protect Ameri- 
can interests which were being constantly vio- 
lated by the Spanish. On the night of February 
15th, while the crew were asleep, the Maine 
was blown up In Havana harbor. Two hundred 
and sixty-six men lost their lives. A Spanish 
commission, appointed to ascertain the cause of 
the catastrophe, reported that the explosion was 
the result of defective internal conditions, but 
the report of a board of United States naval 
officers indicated that the Maine had been de- 
stroyed by Spanish treachery. 

War with Spain. — The destruction of the 
Maine infuriated the American people, who 
were convinced that It was the deliberate act 



WAR AND EXPANSION 333 

of Spaniards, and was answered by a general 
demand for war, which was officially declared 
on April 25, 1898. 

The official declaration explicitly stated that 
the object of the United States In resorting to 
arms was to release the struggling patriots of 
Cuba from the curse of Spanish rule and to 
give them Independence. The war was destined 
to be brief but exceedingly important in its 
results. 

As the regular army numbered only about 
twenty-six thousand men, the President issued 
a call for one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
volunteers. The popular response was over- 
whelming. Sectional, partisan, and social dis- 
tinctions melted away In the unanimity of patri- 
otic sentiment. In the regular army were 
famous Confederate generals fighting side by 
side with their former opponents of the Civil 
War. 

The Victory of Manila Bay. — Hostilities opened 
in the Far East. Commodore Dewey, who com- 
manded the American naval forces in Asiatic 
waters, was ordered to attack the Spanish fleet 
which was stationed in Manila Bay, Philippine 
Islands. On May ist, after a terrific battle last- 
ing half a day, the Spanish ships were utterly 



334 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

destroyed and hundreds of sailors killed, though 
not an American life was lost. 

A few months later the city of Manila was 
taken by the combined attack of Dewey and a 
land force under General Wesley Merritt, as- 
sisted by a band of Filipinos commanded by 
Agulnaldo, a native leader. 

Congress passed a vote of thanks to Dewey 
and his men, and made the Commodore an 
Admiral. 

San Juan and Santiago. — An American army 
of seventeen thousand men was landed on the 
coast of Cuba and took up Its march to the city 
of Santiago. In an engagement with the Span- 
iards on July 2d the Americans were victorious. 
The feature of the day was the brilliant charge 
of the " Rough Riders,'^ a volunteer regiment of 
cavalry typical of our cosmopolitan citizenship, 
made up of rich men and poor men, society lead- 
ers, college graduates, and cowboys from the 
Western plains. 

While the army was approaching Santiago 
by land a naval force under Admirals Sampson 
and Schley was waiting at the mouth of the 
harbor for the Spanish fleet which was stationed 
within to emerge. On July 3d the Spaniards 
made a brave though futile dash for liberty. 



WAR AND EXPANSION 335 

Instantly the American ships opened fire. In 
the course of a few hours every Spanish vessel 
was sunk or captured and hundreds of their 
crews slain. Only one American was killed and 
one wounded. Two weeks after this event San- 
tiago surrendered, and the whole island passed 
under the military control of the United States. 

A few weeks later Porto Rico was taken by 
General Miles's army. 

The End of the War. — The Spanish Govern- 
ment, being unable to sustain the war any 
longer, signified its desire to cease hostilities. 
A treaty of peace negotiated between the two 
belligerent nations at Paris in the fall was 
ratified by the United States Senate February 
6, 1899, ^^d signed by the Queen Regent of 
Spain the following month. 

Under the conditions of this treaty Spain re- 
linquished her sovereignty over Cuba, ceded her 
other islands in the West Indies, including Porto 
Rico, to the United States, and also ceded to 
the United States the entire Philippine group, 
in return for which she received a gratuity of 
$20,000,000. 

The Philippine Question and the Presidential 
Election of 1900. — The acquisition of the Philip- 
pine Islands by the United States gave rise to a 



336 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

long and heated discussion in this country. 
They had been captured as a military measure, 
and when the war ended were still in our pos- 
session. 

There were apparently but three ways for the 
peace commissioners to dispose of the Philip- 
pines : to restore them to Spain and continue the 
misrule of centuries ; to give them independence 
and set them adrift ; or cede them to the United 
States, to which they belonged by right of con- 
quest. 

The first course would have been wrong, the 
second impossible. The Filipinos were utterly 
unfit for self-government in their existing con- 
dition, and would probably have fallen prey to 
some stronger power had they been given inde- 
pendence. Since it seemed to be the only prac- 
ticable solution of the question, the United States 
determined to keep the Philippines, and to do 
what it could do to redeem their people from ig- 
norance, superstition, and savagery. Being un- 
der no obligation to give Spain one cent for the 
islands — to which the United States was en- 
titled by right of conquest — this nation (as 
stated above) nevertheless offered Spain $20,- 
000,000 as an equivalent. 

A large proportion of Filipinos, under the 



WAR AND EXPANSION 337 

leadership of Aguinaldo, rose against the Ameri- 
cans and proclaimed an Independent Philippine 
republic. For two years a guerrilla warfare was 
carried on between the Filipino Insurgents and 
the American troops. 

There were many persons in the United States 
who sympathized with Aguinaldo and his fol- 
lowers, believing that our Government could 
not, without subverting republican ideals and In- 
stitutions, force its sovereignty upon an unwill- 
ing alien people. The Democratic Party held 
this view. 

Before the Philippine revolt had been sup- 
pressed the presidential campaign of 1900 
was at hand. The Democrats renominated 
Bryan and reiterated their principles of 1896. 
Their platform contained an additional plank 
In favor of the Immediate Independence of 
the Philippines under an American protec- 
torate, and denouncing Imperialism, which they 
declared to be the main Issue of the campaign. 
The knowledge that the Democratic Party had 
advocated their cause encouraged the Filipinos 
to resist the United States with renewed vigor. 

The Populists also renominated Bryan, but 
at the election polled a smaller vote than in 
1896. The importance of the Populist Party 



338 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

as a separate political organization has steadily 
waned, the greater part of Its membership hav- 
ing been absorbed by the radical and predomi- 
nant wing of the Democratic Party, whose aim 
Is to extend the general activities of the Gov- 
ernment In the direction urged by the Populists. 

The Republicans again placed McKInley at 
the head of their ticket, naming Theodore 
Roosevelt, Governor of New York, for Vice- 
president. They took the ground that the 
United States was In duty bound as a humane 
and progressive nation to civilize the benighted 
people who by the fortune of war had been 
brought under our flag; that a protectorate 
would fall to answer the purpose; that the Isl- 
ands must be pacified by military force before 
anything could be accomplished; that the Fili- 
pinos lacked the enlightened instincts of Anglo- 
Saxon races, and would relapse Into barbarism 
If allowed at this stage to go their own way. 

The verdict of the people on this and on the 
former Issues of 1896 was a majority for Mc- 
KInley and Roosevelt larger than the Immense 
Republican majority four years before. 

What Has Been Accomplished in our Island 
Possessions. — In March, 1901, Agulnaldo was 
captured, and by the close of that year the 



WAR AND EXPANSION 339 

Philippine insurrection was practically at an 
end. 

Military authority has been replaced by civil 
government, in which the Filipinos have been 
given a degree of representation; schools have 
been instituted with American teachers, and the 
work of civilization is advancing. The islands 
have not, however, been granted those advan- 
tages of an open market for their products to 
which, as a part of our domain, they are in all 
justice entitled. 

In Porto Rico the conditions were different 
from the start, the people being far more civil- 
ized and willing to be annexed to the United 
States. The Porto Ricans have a considerable 
share in civil government. Popular education has 
made great headway, and the domestic products 
and commerce of the island are being rapidly 
developed. 

Neither Porto Rico nor the Philippines are 
a part of the Union as a State or territory. 
They are dependencies of the United States, 
subject to the laws which Congress may make 
for their government. 

Cuba. — There were many things to be done 
in Cuba before the island could be turned over 
to Its people. With the commencement of 1899 



340 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the United States Government assumed entire 
charge of Cuban affairs. The legal and judicial 
systems and methods of taxation were reformed, 
the sanitary conditions of the cities improved, 
public schools introduced, and the people pre- 
pared for self-government. 

In May, 1902, the American occupation 
came to an end and the Cuban people entered 
upon their career as a republican member of 
the family of nations. 

The United States had sacrificed life and 
lavished treasure in the liberation of Cuba. It 
seemed not unreasonable, therefore, to demand 
in return that American interests should not be 
ignored or jeopardized by the nation which 
owed its existence to the intervention of the 
United States. Accordingly, Cuba promised to 
respect the Monroe Doctrine by never allowing 
any foreign power to acquire control of any part 
of Cuban territory, and further agreed never 
to incur debts beyond its power to pay. Several 
naval stations were granted in perpetuity to the 
United States. These concessions were em- 
bodied in the Cuban constitution. 

The probabilities for a successful and perma- 
nent Cuban republic, as indicated by the events 
of the last four years, do not conduce to an opti- 



WAR AND EXPANSION 341 

mistic view of the future. The pohtlcal history 
of independent Cuba is not essentially different 
from that of the common run of Latin-Ameri- 
can republics. In 1906 it became necessary for 
the United States to intervene for the protection 
of its citizens and the preservation of their in- 
terests. A state of anarchy prevailed in the 
island, precipitated by the disaffection of a 
strong revolutionary element and the inefficiency 
of the Cuban administration to enforce author- 
ity. The intervention was in strict accord with 
legality, and was welcomed by government and 
rebels alike. With their consent, and by author- 
ity of the United States, a provisional govern- 
ment was established to unravel the civil tangle. 
Results of the War with Spain.— Only a few 
months elapsed between the declaration of hos- 
tilities and the signing of the peace treaty. 
There were but two great naval engagements, 
and no land battle that would at all compare 
in magnitude with the battles of the Civil War. 
And yet measured by its consequences the Span- 
ish War was one of the most important con- 
tests of modern times. It not only destroyed 
the last remnant of Spanish sovereignty in the 
Western Hemisphere, but It marked the definite 
abandonment by the United States of Its former 



342 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

policy of Isolation from the affairs of the out- 
side world and Its entrance upon the broad 
stage of International life In the permanent 
character of a world power. American sov- 
ereignty over the Philippine and Hawaiian Isl- 
ands In the Pacific, together with a steadily In- 
creasing Oriental trade, have given this nation 
so many points of contact with other first-class 
powers having commercial Interests In the Far 
East, that It could not any longer remain a 
*' hermit " nation even If It were so disposed.* 
This development has necessitated a larger 
army and navy, but that does not necessarily 
signify that Americans are becoming more bel- 
ligerent. On the contrary, the United States has 
shown a willingness beyond any other country to 
arbitrate differences with other nations, excepting 
Issues Involving the Monroe Doctrine, which it 
has officially proclaimed It will never arbitrate. 
It gave hearty cooperation to the establishment 

* The Hawaiian Islands are a small group situated about 
two thousand miles from San Francisco containing a mixed 
population. In 1893 the native monarchy was overthrown 
and a provisional government established under the leader- 
ship of American residents. In 1898 the islands were an- 
nexed to the United States by a joint resolution of Congress 
and in accordance with the wishes of a majority of the 
Hawaiian people. Two years later Hawaii was made a 
territory. The islands are important chiefly as a naval station. 



WAR AND EXPANSION 343 

of the international court known as The Hague 
Tribunal (1899), and was the first to submit 
a dispute to the decision of that body. 

The United States and the "Open Door" in 
China. — The reality of American influence in 
the Far East received striking demonstration in 
the events following the Boxer uprising. 

Certain European powers had long been try- 
ing to get control of China. In 1900 the Box- 
ers, a Chinese secret society, started a crusade 
against foreigners, and for five weeks the for- 
eign legations at Peking were besieged. The 
German minister and many other persons were 
killed. The legations were saved by the timely 
arrival of a relief expedition made up of British, 
French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Ameri- 
can troops. 

Most of the European powers proposed to 
punish China by taking territory away from her 
and dividing it among themselves. This inten- 
tion was resisted by the United States through 
John Hay, the able Secretary of State, who suc- 
ceeded in gaining general assent to the " Open 
Door " policy — that is, that no nation appro- 
priate any part of China exclusively for itself, 
but that China be open to the commerce of the 
world. 



344 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Assassination of McKinley. — The second 
administration of William McKinley opened 
with every indication of prosperity for the coun- 
try over which he had twice been elected to pre- 
side. In 1 90 1 a Pan-American Exposition was 
held at Buffalo. The President attended and 
delivered a speech full of wise counsel and noble 
sentiment. At Its conclusion he was approached 
by an anarchist who carried a revolver concealed 
in a handkerchief wrapped about his hand, and 
in unspeakable treachery shot the President as 
the latter extended his hand in friendly greet- 
ing. McKinley lingered a few days, but died 
on September 14th. 

As President, and throughout his long pub- 
lic career, Mr. McKinley had shown himself 
to be not only a wise and upright statesman 
but a gentleman of exalted type, and his death 
was the occasion of unfeigned and universal 
grief. 

The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. — Mc- 
Klnley's successor had been in public life ever 
since his graduation from Harvard College In 
1880, and was favorably known as author, civil 
service reformer, and statesman. He had at- 
tracted attention as Police Commissioner of 
New York City by his rigorous enforcement of 



WAR AND EXPANSION 345 

the laws. At the outbreak of the war with 
Spain he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
but resigned to take the field, where he won 
popular renown as Lieutenant Colonel of the 
Rough Riders. After the war he was elected 
Governor of New York, and subsequently Vice- 
president of the United States. Roosevelt pos- 
sessed courage, independence, firmness, and hon- 
esty. On account of these qualities his strength 
lay with the people rather than with the poli- 
ticians. 

The Coal Strike, 1902.— The industrial war- 
fare between capital and labor broke out with 
renewed fury in the spring of 1902, when the 
anthracite coal-miners of Pennsylvania struck 
after their demands for higher wages, shorter 
hours, and the recognition of the United Mine 
Workers' Union had been refused by the oper- 
ators. In the interests of the general public 
who were threatened with a coal famine by the 
strike. President Roosevelt appealed to the 
miners and operators to submit their dispute 
to arbitration. Both sides consenting, a com- 
mission was appointed which succeeded in set- 
tling the strike by a three years' agreement be- 
tween operators and miners. 

One result of the coal strike was the creation 



346 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of a new Cabinet position, the Department of 
Commerce and Labor. 

Roosevelt and the Trusts. — The great aggre- 
gations of capital had been steadily growing 
stronger, while the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, 
which had been passed in 1890 for their regula- 
tion, had never been enforced. Realizing the 
peril to the public that lay in the misuse of 
power by great corporations, President Roose- 
velt directed the Attorney-general to bring suit 
under the Sherman law against the Northern Se- 
curities Company to prevent the consolidation of 
certain railroads in the North-west. The Su- 
preme Court rendered its decision in 1904, sus- 
taining the action of the Attorney-general and 
declaring the Northern Securities " merger " 
illegal. 

In 1903 a new and more stringent anti- 
trust law was enacted compelling corporations 
which do an interstate business to open their 
accounts to the inspection of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 

The Panama Canal. — For more than half a 
century the United States had desired a ship 
canal at some point on the isthmus joining 
North and South America. During President 
Tyler's administration the United States and 



WAR AND EXPANSION 347 

Great Britain had entered Into a compact 
known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, by the 
terms of which each country bound Itself never 
to obtain exclusive control over any isthmian 
canal that might be constructed in the future, 
but engaging to keep It neutral. 

In course of time the relative interests of 
the two nations in a possible canal greatly 
changed. As the Pacific coast filled with peo- 
ple a water-way became more than ever nec- 
essary to the United States. After many 
Ineffectual attempts to secure the abrogation 
of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, that obstacle 
was at last removed by a new international 
agreement known as the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty 
(1902) by which the United States secured full 
power to construct and operate a canal across 
the Isthmus. 

A treaty was at once negotiated with the 
United States of Colombia, the sovereign 
power on the isthmus, for the necessary con- 
trol of a portion of Panama. The terms were 
very favorable to Colombia, but the Colom- 
bian Senate, hoping to compel the United 
States to pay a larger sum of money than had 
been proposed, refused to ratify the treaty. 

At this juncture the people of Panama de- 



348 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

clared their independence of Colombia, and set 
up a republic which was recognized by the 
United States three days after the event, and by 
European powers quite as promptly. Secretary 
Hay then offered the newly instituted Panama 
Government terms similar to those which Co- 
lombia had rejected, guaranteeing in addition the 
independence of the Panama republic, and a sat- 
isfactory agreement was soon reached for the con- 
struction of the canal. 

When finished the Panama Canal will be of 
Immeasurable advantage to the commercial 
world. Vessels will no longer be compelled to 
voyage around Cape Horn to reach San Fran- 
cisco and the ports of Asia. Although the prop- 
erty of the United States, the canal will be open 
to the commerce of other nations. 

The Election of 1904. — As the presidential 
year approached, public sentiment- — which the 
politicians would gladly have stifled — demanded 
the nomination of Roosevelt, whom the accident 
of McKInley's death had promoted from the 
dignified obscurity of the vice-presidency to un- 
disputed party leadership. 

The Democrats, unwilling or unready to ab- 
jure the alleged heresies which had twice re- 
sulted In Ignominious defeat, but anxious to 



WAR AND EXPANSION 349 

reinstate their party in public confidence, nomi- 
nated a conservative candidate on a mildly radi- 
cal platform. Alton B. Parker, an able New 
York jurist, was their standard-bearer. 

The campaign was exceptionally quiet and 
uneventful. The policies of the administration 
were generally approved by the country, whose 
faith In the common-sense and disinterested pa- 
triotism of the President seemed invincible. 
The electoral vote stood three hundred and 
thirty-four to one hundred and forty for Roose- 
velt and Fairbanks, backed by a popular major- 
ity of unprecedented magnitude. 

Congressional Legislation of 1906. — The first 
session of the Fifty-ninth Congress was marked 
by the enactment of a series of drastic measures 
designed to extend the power of the Federal 
Government, especially the executive branch of 
it, over great corporations. 

The railway rate law empowers the Interstate 
Commerce Commission to regulate rates of rail- 
roads and other common carriers. The meat 
inspection and pure food laws are directed 
against unscrupulous dealers In fraudulent food 
products in the interest of the public health; 
while the aim of the immunity law is to deprive 
officials of recalcitrant corporations of certain 



350 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

artificial refuges which they have heretofore en- 
joyed in criminal prosecutions. 

The United States in the Twentieth Century. — 
As the American of the present age looks out 
with conscious pride over the vast domain 
whose sovereign emblem is the stars and stripes, 
and contrasts conditions of to-day with those 
which prevailed when title passed from the 
Latin to the Teutonic race, he beholds a change 
so wonderful, a progress so marvellous, as 
to challenge and surpass belief. He sees a 
country which three centuries ago contained 
scarcely a white man to contrast the pallor 
of his skin with the dusky red of its aborig- 
inal inhabitant, to-day maintaining in all their 
strength eighty millions of prosperous and 
happy citizens. To the war-whoop of the sav- 
age resounding with horrendous din through 
the forest's wild retreats, has succeeded the 
hum of Industry In factory, field, and mine. In 
regions of once unbroken solitude, or echoing 
to the wild beast's cry now stand the busy 
marts of trade. While greater than all Its 
vaunted wealth, surpassing all material splen- 
dor, a mighty moral Influence proceeds from 
this favored people, illuminating by Its radia- 
tions and lifting toward higher ideals of man- 



WAR AND EXPANSION 351 

hood and citizenship the myriads from other 
lands who seek our welcoming shores. 

There are many indisputable evils in the po- 
litical and industrial life of the times, but they 
are in gradual process of correction — not so 
much through doubtful remedies of legisla- 
tion, which thoughtless agitators are apt to 
invoke for insufficient cause, as in consequence 
of the steady growth of an enlightened and 
responsive public conscience and a natural evolu- 
tionary adjustment Induced by the ceaselss play 
of Inherent forces. 

Despite the prevalence of Industrial conten- 
tion capital was never so busy or so productive 
as now, nor labor so richly remunerated. The 
general tendency of wages Is up, not down. 
American workingmen to-day enjoy material 
comforts and intellectual advantages which were 
unknown to their class a generation ago, and are 
still Impossible In other countries. Some of the 
great corporations encourage employees to in- 
vest their savings In the stock of the employ- 
ing enterprises, thus approximating the benefits 
of cooperative effort. The Pennsylvania Rail- 
road and certain other transportation companies 
provide pensions for those who reach the age- 
llmlt in their service. 



352 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

One of the obvious features of our time Is the 
rapid growth of cities. Out of the nine cities of 
the world having a population of more than a 
million each, three are In the United States, 
while many others are swiftly approaching that 
mark. In 1790, when the first census was taken, 
the urban population of the United States com- 
prised less than one-thlrtleth of the whole; to- 
day one-third find their homes amid the rush 
and roar of great towns. This phenomenon Is 
chiefly due to the fact that urban centres are the 
foci of predominant manufacturing and com- 
mercial activities. 

The development of American cities has given 
rise to serious problems which press for solu- 
tion, not the least of which Is the question of 
government. Many municipalities are cursed 
by predatory '* rings " which rob the tax-payers 
for purposes of corrupt and selfish profit. But 
there is now observable throughout the land a 
decided reaction from the passive acquiescence 
of the past, and an unmistakable movement 
toward the elimination of partisanship In munici- 
pal government — a demand for public oflficlals 
whose qualifications are honesty and adminis- 
trative capacity. 

In the invention and use of superior machin- 



WAR AND EXPANSION 353 

ery, In business organization, and In transpor- 
tation, America Is giving lessons to the world. 

Our public-school system, more Inclusive and 
efficient than ever, maintains a high level of 
popular Intelligence to which the numerous pri- 
vate institutions of every grade materially con- 
tribute. The voluntary gifts of philanthropic 
men of wealth to education aggregate millions 
of dollars annually. 

And now, In final retrospect, what is the secret 
of this rapid and amazing metamorphosis — this 
superlative achievement of material and moral 
greatness, the foundations of which were laid 
and the superstructure reared within the brief 
compass of three hundred years? 

The answer to this question, drawn from the 
remarkable career of this unique people and 
briefly epitomized Is this: The open secret of 
American success Is the universal presence of 
opportunity which begins In the public school 
and extends through every avenue of industrial 
employment and civic life; the habit of self- 
reliance, formed under stress of early necessity 
and fostered through years of continued and 
voluntary choice; the freedom of Individuals 
and associations from the curse of governmental 
Interference, which would choke and paralyze 



354 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

private initiative and teach men to depend upon 
the state rather than upon their own unaided and 
aggressive energies ; the spirit of fair play which 
recognizes before the law no Invidious distinc- 
tion of race, religion, or social caste. It Is the 
principle of individualism which, like the scarlet 
thread that runs through all the cordage of the 
British Navy, pervades our national philosophy 
and gives direction to our practice. 



OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



CHAPTER I— DISCOVERY 

PAGE 

The Attempt to Find a Short Sea-passage to India . 2 

Columbus 4 

Why the New World was Called America ... 8 
John Cabot and the English Claim .... 9 
Spanish Explorations and Conquests .... 9 
Why North America did not Remain Spanish . .11 



CHAPTER II— THE INDIANS 

Appearance, Character, and Government . . .14 

Mode of Life 15 

Warfare 18 

Religion 19 

The Modem Indian 20 



CHAPTER III— THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 
1607-1733 

Virginia (1607) 22 

The Beginning of Slavery 24 

Maryland (1634) 26 

The Carolinas (1663) 27 

Georgia (1733) 27 

CHAPTER IV— THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 
1620-91 

Massachusetts (1620) 30 

Rhode Island (1636) 32 

Connecticut (1636) 33 

New Hampshire (1691) 34 

King Philip's War 34 

355 



356 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

CHAPTER V—WHE MIDDLE COLONIES 
1664-81 

PAGE 

New York (1664) 36 

New Jersey (1664) 38 

Pennsylvania (168 1 ) 38 

The People 42 

Delaware — the "Territories of Pennsylvania" (1682). 45 

CHAPTER VI— THE FRENCH AND INDIAN 
WAR 

Its Meaning 46 

Differences in French and English Character . . 48 

The Growth of French Dominion 50 

The Final Conflict 51 

Comparison of Military Strength 52 

The Fall of Louisburg and Quebec . . . .54 

Results of the English Conquest 55 

The Conspiracy of Pontiac 57 

CHAPTER VII— THE COLONIES IN THE EIGH- 
TEENTH CENTURY 

Points of General Divergence and Similarity , .59 

The Southern Colonies 61 

New England 64 

The Middle Colonies 66 

The Crudity of Colonial Life .68 

Government . . . • 70 

Town and County 72 

CHAPTER VIII— CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 

A Change in British Policy 75 

The Navigation Acts 76 



OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY 357 



The Sending of British Troops 
Taxation Without Representation 
The Stamp Act and the Quartering Act 
The Colonies Remonstrate 
The Townshend Act 
Opposition Becomes Violent . 
The "Intolerable Acts" . 
The First Continental Congress 
The First Blood of the Revolution 
The Meaning of the Coming Struggle 



77 
77 
77 
78 
79 
80 
81 

83 
84 
85 



CHAPTER IX— THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 



The Second Continental Congress 88 

The Combatants Compared 89 

Battle of Bunker Hill 92 

The Attempt to Take Quebec 93 

The British Evacuate Boston 94 

The Declaration of Independence 95 

American Reverses 98 

Trenton and Princeton 99 

The British in Philadelphia 100 

The Surrender of Burgoyne 100 

The Conway Cabal 102 

The Winter at Valley Forge 102 

Revolutionary Finance 103 

France to the Rescue 105 

Naval Exploits 107 

The Battle of Monmouth 108 

Stony Point 109 

The Treason of Arnold 109 

The War in the South no 

Yorktown 112 

The Treaty of Peace 113 

Revolutionary Doctrine and Modem Practice . .114 



358 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



CHAPTER X— FORMATION OF THE FEDERAL 
GOVERNMENT 

PAGE 

The Confederation ii8 

The North-west Territory and the Ordinance of 1787, 119 

The Constitutional Convention 120 

State or National Sovereignty? 121 

Slavery 122 

The Constitution . . .' 123 

Ratification of the Constitution 125 

Amendments 126 

A Monarchical Type of Executive 127 

The First Presidential Election 129 

The Cabinet 130 

Financial Reform 130 

The Rise of Political Parties 133 

Trouble with the Indians 135 

The American People in 1800 135 



CHAPTER XI— EARLY ACHIEVEMENT AND 
NATIONAL EXPANSION 

The Jay Treaty 139 

The Alien and Sedition Laws, 1798 .... 139 
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions . . .140 

The Election of Jefferson 141 

The Barbary War 141 

The Louisiana Purchase and the Expedition of Lewis 

and Clark 142 

The Hamilton-Burr Duel, 1804 145 

Fulton's Steamboat 147 



CHAPTER XII— THE WAR OF 1812 

The Embargo 150 

The Presidency of James Madison, 1809-17 . • 151 



OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY 359 

PAGE 

The Battle of Tippecanoe 152 

War Declared 153 

Military Disaster 154 

Naval Victories 155 

The Enemy in Washington 156 

Jackson and the Indians 157 

New Orleans 158 

The Hartford Convention 159 

Resiilts of the War 159 



CHAPTER XIII— THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL- 
ITY AND THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF 
POLITICAL PARTIES 

The Purchase of Florida 162 

The Monroe Doctrine 162 

New Political Divisions 165 

The Slavery Question and the Missouri Compromise, 169 
The Tariff Question 172 



CHAPTER XIV— ANDREW JACKSON AND THE 
REIGN OF THE PEOPLE 

The Election of Jackson 174 

The Spoils System 176 

Nullification 177 

The Democracy of Jefferson and of Jackson Com- 
pared 180 

Jackson and the Bank 181 

The Administration of Martin Van Buren . . .183 
The Rise and First Success of the Whig Party . 184 
The Whigs Fail to Make a Record . , . .185 



36o BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



CHAPTER XV— INVENTION, LITERATURE, 
MORAL PROGRESS, AND SOCIAL 
CONDITIONS 

PAGE 

Material Improvement 187 

Why the South did not Develop 189 

Slave Life 190 

The Abolitionists 191 

Great Statesmen 193 

Growth of Democracy 194 



CHAPTER XVI— THE SLAVERY QUESTION 
IN POLITICS 

Texas and the Election of 1844 197 

The Democrats Again in Power 198 

The War with Mexico, 1846-48 199 

Results of the Mexican War 202 

The Election of 1848 203 

California 204 

The Compromise of 1850 205 

Three Great Speeches 206 

The Election of 1852 and the Death of the Whig 

Party 207 

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 208 

Violence in Kansas 209 

The Birth of the Republican Party and the Election 

of 1856 210 

The Dred Scott Decision 212 

The Raid and Execution of John Brown . . .213 

CHAPTER XVII— SECESSION 

The Election of Abraham Lincoln . . . .215 

Secession of the Cotton States 217 



OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY 361 

PAGE 

Fort Sumter 219 

The Call to Arms 220 

Other States Secede 220 

The Confederate Constitution 221 

The Motive and the Argument of Secession . . .222 



CHAPTER XVIII— THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-65 

The Belligerents Compared 226 

The Federal Plan of War 227 

Confederate Victories in the East 227 

Bull Run 228 

McClellan and the Army of the Potomac . . .228 
Failure of the Movement Against Richmond . .229 

The M err imac and the Monitor 231 

Antietam 233 

Emancipation 235 

Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville . . . .238 

Union Victories in the West 240 

Forts Henry and Donelson and Island No. 10 . . 241 

Pittsburg Landing 241 

The Capture of New Orleans 242 

Vicksburg 242 

Gettysburg 243 

Chickamauga 245 

Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge . . .245 

The Blockade 246 

Confederate Finance 248 

The Beginning of the Final Struggle . . . .249 

Sherman Takes Atlanta 250 

Grant and Lee 251 

The Presidential Election of 1864 252 

The Fall of the Confederacy 253 

The Armies Disband 255 

Results of the War 256 



362 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
CHAPTER XIX— RECONSTRUCTION 

PAGE 

Opposing Policies 259 

The Assassination of Lincoln . . , . .260 

Thaddeus Stevens Supreme 261 

Andrew Johnson 262 

The President and Congress 262 

The Fourteenth Amendment 263 

The Reconstruction Acts 264 

The Fifteenth Amendment 267 

Anarchy in the South 267 

The Failure of Reconstruction 269 

The Negro of To-day 271 

CHAPTER XX— FROM THE IMPEACHMENT 

OF JOHNSON TO THE POLITICAL 

REVOLUTION OF 1884 

The Tenure-of-Office Act 275 

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868) . . 276 

The Purchase of Alaska 278 

The Presidency of General Grant, 1869-77 . . .279 
Grant's Weakness as an Executive . . . .279 

The Republican Party Splits 281 

The Reign of Graft 283 

Patriotic Achievement 284 

The Resumption Act 285 

The Centennial 286 

The Contested Election of 1876 287 

The Electoral Commission 290 

The Hayes Administration 291 

Garfield and Arthur 292 

CHAPTER XXI— THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA 

The Democracy Returns to Power 295 

The First Administration of Cleveland . . .297 



OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY 363 

PAGE 

The Presidential Succession Act — 1886 . . .298 

Labor Troubles 299 

Anarchist Riots 300 

The Interstate Commerce Act 301 

Cleveland and Civil Service Reform .... 302 
Cleveland's Famous Tariff Message . . . .304 

The Election of 1888 306 

The Harrison Administration 307 

The McKinley Tariff 307 

The Sherman Anti-Trust Law, 1890 . . . .308 



CHAPTER XXII— THE SILVER QUESTION 
IN POLITICS 



The Rise of the Populists 

The Free Silver Movement 

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act 

The Second Cleveland Administration 

The Repeal of the Sherman Act, 1893 . 

The Wilson Tariff 

The Columbian Exposition 
The Great Pullman Strike, 1894 . 
Cleveland Champions the Monroe Doctrine 
Free Silver and the Battle of 1896 

The Argument 

The Triumph of the Gold Standard 

The Administration of William McKinley 

Whe Dingley Tariff 



309 
310 
312 

313 
315 
318 
319 
320 

323 
324 
327 
329 
329 
330 



CHAPTER XXIII— WAR AND EXPANSION 

The Revolt of Cuba 331 

The Destruction of the Maine 332 

War with Spain 332 

The Victory of Manila Bay 333 

San Juan and Santiago 334 

The End of the War 335 



364 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

PAGE 

The Philippine Question and the Presidential Elec- 
tion of 1900 335 

What Has Been Accomplished in our Island Posses- 
sions 338 

Cuba 339 

Results of the War with Spain 341 

The United States and the "Open Door" in China . 343 

The Assassination of McKinley 344 

The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt . . .344 

The Coal Strike, 1902 345 

Roosevelt and the Trusts 346 

The Panama Canal 346 

The Election of 1904 348 

Congressional Legislation of 1906 349 

The United States in the Twentieth Century . .350 



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